Ma Jiang Goes Global

Games of all types in China have local characteristics, and the advent of trade carried different forms from place to place. Ma Jiang remains a strongly regionalised game, with variations in the number and decoration of tiles, the game play and the scoring of hands. It’s spread oversees has been credited to different people, with 2 stories dominating the discourse.

Ge Kuihua (1838-1882), worked for the American Consul in Shanghai and the British Consul in Ningbo and was a close friend of Chen Yumen. He became the first Chinese Professor in an American University and is said to have introduced mah-jong at Harvard.

J.P. Babcock commercialised the spread to the US by organising the production and export of a standardised form of mah-jong whilst he worked in China as an executive for Standard Oil. He created a fashion sensation in the 1920’s, exporting thousands of sets. His patents were bought by Parker Bros and his success helped spread the craze for mah-jong across Europe and S.E.Asia.

Mahjong also spread dramatically in Asia, perhaps most significantly to Japan, where it is said to be even more popular than in China.