The teacher who fell asleep to the sound of tiles

Ronni Rice knew the sound of American Mahjong long before she knew the game. She grew up falling asleep to the tapping of tiles, while her mother, her grandmother, her aunt and their friends played at the table. Her mother offered to teach her. Ronni was a child at the time, with firm views on what counted as cool, and she said no thank you.

Prim finds this enormously reassuring. Some of the very best players at any table are the ones who turned it down the first time.

The game waited for her. It came back when her own children were in elementary school, and this time it stayed. She has written that her love of the game began then, even if a house full of busy young children meant her games came and went with the school calendar.

Sixteen players, then 160

In 2018, a dear friend asked Ronni to help build a group with two simple goals: to play more Mahjong, and to teach other people to play. They called it Mahjong For Beginners and More. It began with sixteen players. It grew to more than 160, from people who had never touched a tile to players good enough for tournaments.

And then, in Ronni's own words, Covid happened.

When the tables could open again, she went further. She launched Marvelous Mrs. Mahj, a teaching practice in Encino, California, to keep doing what the group had been built to do. She teaches beginners and intermediate players in private and group lessons, many of them at her own home, where the cats and dogs are part of the welcome. She teaches at parties and corporate events. She offers virtual classes that run from the basic rules to a close look at the year's card, and her students can watch them again whenever they like.

She is particular about one thing, and Prim admires her for it. She teaches only by the rules of the National Mah Jongg League, along with what she calls its rituals and proper etiquette. She is a certified instructor with the American Mah-Jongg Instructors Association, and UCLA Extension, where she has taught its Beginning Mah-Jongg course for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Westwood, says she has taught hundreds of new players how to play.

“A powerful tool for our brain and soul.”Ronni Rice, on American Mahjong

Why does she do it? She has written that she has made many friends through the game, and that she was moved by stories of older people living with dementia whose memories still hold on to Mahjong. That is where the line above comes from, and Prim could not put it better, so she will not try.

A movie inspired by her life

This year her story reached a much larger table. All's Fair in Love & Mahjong premiered on the Hallmark Channel on May 9, 2026, and Ronni describes it simply as a movie inspired by her life. Fiona Gubelmann plays the lead, a school nurse named Ronni who finds she has a gift for teaching the game, alongside Paul Campbell, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Tamera Mowry-Housley and Melissa Peterman. It was produced by Ronni's husband, the Hallmark producer Joel S. Rice, and it is now streaming on Hallmark+.

Since then she has gone on doing what she did before anyone made a film about it, which is teaching. In August she led an introduction to American Mahjong for AARP California's Tea & Coffee Tuesdays series, on the history of the game, its key rules, and why it brings people together. The National Mah Jongg League has featured her in its Instructor Spotlight.

Prim's view

A Hallmark movie is a lovely thing to have happen to you, and Prim is delighted for her. But the part of this story Prim keeps coming back to is the sixteen players. A friend asked for help starting a group, Ronni said yes, and a few years later there were 160 people at the table who might never otherwise have sat down. That is how this game really spreads: one teacher saying yes, and then saying it again.

The little girl who fell asleep to the sound of tiles is the one making that sound for other people now. Prim suspects her mother would be very pleased.