Mahjong is a tile-based game devised in Shanghai in the mid- to late-19th century. The name means "sparrow", as the sound of tiles knocking together is reminiscent of the birds' clacking. It started out as a gambling game associated with insalubrious venues such as brothels and teahouses, but by the end of the 19th century it had spread into the homes of the bourgeoisie and from Shanghai to the rest of China.
Mahjong continued its march across East Asia in the early 20th century. In the 1920s it conquered America. Joseph Babcock—who had been sent to China by Standard Oil and loved to play the game with his wife—simplified mahjong and created tiles with Roman numerals, setting off a craze. Famous boosters included Fred Astaire and Warren and Florence Harding, then the president and first lady.
In 1937 a group of Jewish women formed the National Mah-jongg League. They simplified and standardised the rules, creating the version now known as American Mahjong. Today there are dozens of variations of the game, each with slightly different rules, scoring systems and number of tiles. In American Mahjong the winning player must match their hand to one of the combinations on a card; in Hong Kong Mahjong, they must assemble four sequences and a pair of tiles.
Global attendance at mahjong events more than tripled in the year to early 2026. Luxury brands have turned kits into objets d'art: Hermès and Prada sell mahjong sets, and Louis Vuitton's "Vanity Mahjong Trunk" costs £48,000. Studies have found that, among the elderly, playing mahjong regularly is associated with lower rates of depression and helps maintain cognitive function.
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