The Surge
A Sunday magazine follows the tiles across Colorado, and back to a 1937 hotel ballroom
The Colorado Sun finds the game in Denver bars, libraries and living rooms, and traces how the American card began.
The Colorado Sun's Sunday magazine reported on 27 September that the game has become a fixture at bars, libraries and living rooms all over Colorado. Reporter Parker Yamasaki visited Denver groups playing both American mah jongg and Hong Kong style, including a Mahj Squad started by Kelly Warren and a partner that plays the American game at Wash Park Social.
According to the article, Tiffany Leong, founder of the Honour Tile Society, taught a beginner class at Blend.Co in Denver on 13 August that drew three dozen women. University of Denver professor Amy He hosts a monthly Midnight Mahjong gathering that the Sun says fills almost six tables.
The piece also retells how the American game got its card. Per the Sun, in 1937 nearly 400 women gathered at the Essex House hotel, convened by Viola Cecil, president of the newly formed National Mah Jongg League, and the League introduced a rule card members could buy for a dime.
The article spends real time on the game's Chinese origins and on the players who say parts of the original are lost in translation. In Prim's opinion it is worth reading in full: the more you know about where the tiles came from, the better the table you keep.