Tile game mah-jongg making comeback

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1998 | 11:03 a.m.

In the 1940s and '50s, during mah-jongg's golden age in the United States, it was not uncommon for Dorothy Meyerson to be featured in major publications.

Meyerson's book "That's It" standardized mah-jongg rules in the United States in the 1930s, leading to the heightened popularity of the ancient Chinese tile game.

Meyerson's daughter, Marjorie Troum, says getting significant coverage from today's bigger newspapers is a pleasant surprise that bolsters her efforts to carry on her late mother's work.

She points to two recent New York Times features on mah-jongg and a Los Angeles Times piece on how the game has made a comeback in China.

"Getting coverage in those two newspapers is just one more sign that mah-jongg's popularity is really growing again," said Troum, who is directing the ninth annual Las Vegas Marjorie Troum Mah-Jongg Tournament West this week. The tournament runs Wednesday through Friday at the Monte Carlo hotel-casino.

"The fact that the New York Times published a story in March and another in June shows that there has to be a lot of interest among so many readers."

A June 14 New York Times story contrasted the game's sweet nostalgia with the sometimes fierce dedication of its competitors.

"(The game) conjures up the '40s and early '50s, an era of back-and-forth visiting and coffee klatches," the Times wrote. On the other side of the coin, the paper told of one player who said that "when her son interrupted a game to say he'd broken two fingers, she made him wait while she finished a hand."

A Los Angeles Times piece, published March 29 with a Beijing dateline, noted that in China, where the Mandarins developed the first rules 2,500 years ago, the game was once banned by the communists.

"It is one of the 'Four Olds' -- old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits -- attacked by the militant Red Guards under Chairman Mao," the article said. "For nearly half a century, China's communist rulers have tried nearly every tactic to discourage mah-jongg."

The article noted that in January, for the first time in many years, a tournament was allowed in China, but promoters were not allowed to advertise it as competitive mah-jongg. They were instead allowed to call it "healthy" or "hygienic" mah-jongg, the newspaper reported.

The Los Angeles Times even gave Troum's efforts a brief nod, noting: "American devotees sponsor special mah-jongg cruises and Las Vegas tournaments."

Troum, who also runs a mah-jongg supply company in Coronado, Calif., expects about 100 players in town this week, including about 40 Las Vegans. Locals can sign up before the first round at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. The entry fee is $70.

The event is co-sponsored by Roberta and Steve Last of Travel Wizard in La Mesa, Calif.

The game features four players with each contestant using 14 of the 152 small Chinese-symboled tiles to achieve a winning hand. Unused tiles are discarded to opponents. A player says "mahj" or "that's it" when making a winning hand.

In recent years, mah-jongg has been featured prominently in at least two major motion pictures -- "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Joy Luck Club" -- and on the CBS television sitcom "The Nanny."