Lucky Tile’s Mah Jong Socials and Classes Can’t Keep Up With Demand

The Chinese game of mahjong is having a moment.

Meghan Markle loves it (she and her “Maj Squad” play at girls’ nights). Julia Roberts plays weekly with actress niece Emma Roberts. The classic four-person parlour game is currently a must-have amenity for luxury hotels.

Here in Vancouver, the renaissance has arrived. Newly launched Lucky Tile Mahjong Events is introducing (or re-introducing) people to the game in a fun, pressure-free environment, with monthly learn-to-play seminars and practice socials at rotating spots around the city. So far, demand is crazy: events are selling out quickly and are frequently waitlisted.

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“It’s been amazing to see how many people will come and frankly not be good at something,” says co-founder Vivian McCormick, a second- generation Chinese-Canadian. While the game was a fixture in her childhood (her family immigrated from China to Canada in the ’70s), she was never invited to play at the table with the adults, so she’s made both age and cultural inclusion front and centre to building Lucky Tile. (They’ve taught a 100-year-old woman at one session and had three generations of one family at another.)

A recent sold-out two-hour learn-to-play session drew dozens of people of all ages and skill levels (even folks marked as “green”—a.k.a. never touched a tile), all coming together to learn the Hong Kong style of play. Each table is assigned an “auntie” (really, just an experienced coach—you’re just as likely to get a man in his 20s as you are an elderly female guide) who explains rules and strategy. The game is fast paced—think: the card game rummy —with the goal of forming sets of three or four matching or sequential tiles.

 

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Like McCormick, event participant Cindy Yu grew up around the game but hadn’t played for years before she was re-introduced at a three-hour session. “I literally begged to keep playing. I was so hooked. I’ve gotten all my friends hooked, too. I think this is a moment—and it’s just going to explode.”

Visit luckytilemahjong.com for upcoming events.