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Sunday, December 02, 2007

「 Ms Da Yakking Away At 9:53 am 」
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Mahjong 麻将

In today's Lifestyle section lies an article on Mahjong Magic; more and more new unlikely converts - from students to yuppies to expats - are playing the ancient game without money exhanging hands.

As I was telling Baby, the game has always been a form of gambling since ancient times. One 風 may jolly well last for more than an hour. So why waste time if there is no real money involved? Seriously. Ask those who play mahjong frequently (for money) and you will know.

Mahjong (麻将), or Mádiào (馬吊) in early Ming dynasty, is a game for four players that originated in China. It usually has at least 136 tiles and involves skill, strategy, calculation and a certain degree of luck. The object of the game is to build complete suits from either 13 or 16 tiles. The first person to achieve this goal with a set of either 14 or 17 tiles wins the game.

A Mahjong set is split into three categories - suits, honor and flowers.

Suits - Characters 萬 (wan), Dots 餅 / 銅 (bing / tong) and Bamboos 條 (tiao)

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Honor - Wind 東、南、西、北 (dong, nan, xi, bei) and Zhong Fa Bai 中、發、白

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Flowers - 花 (hua)


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