Mah-jong: old Chinese tile game finds new life Young people click with game’s community and sensory pleasures The popularity of the tile game mah-jong “spans continents and centuries”, said Vanity Fair. And, these days, it’s moving firmly from “amusing pastime” to “a lifestyle” for many young people. A combination of “ritual and mystery”, the game requires “skill and intelligence” and can feel “nearly impenetrable” to observers. But Gen Zs are increasingly entranced by the “hypnotic and persistent clicking of tiles” and “silent swapping of pieces”. ‘Pattern recognition’ skills Originating in 19th century China, mah-jong was brought to the West in the 1920s by Joseph Park Babcock, a US Standard Oil representative who’d been living in Shanghai. Back then, it was played with imported, heavy, traditional tiles. These “could easily stand on edge on a table” but soon “cheaper, lighter” tiles were being manufactured in the US that needed additional racks and pushers for support. Article continues belowThe Week Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Babcock adapted the game’s rules to “an American style of play”, and what had started out in China as a male-dominated gambling game “associated with insalubrious venues” was picked up fervently by “society women” in the US. They had a “wealth of time to play and money to buy tile sets”. The game’s current boom in popularity has been driven, in no small part, by social media and popular culture, said The Economist. In manga and