![]() Today, many play with the tiles that reunite them with loved ones who have passed away.As a third generation player of Mah Jongg, I have inherited the Bakelite set that belonged to my mother and to my grandmother before her. As players and their children age, the meaning of their mahjong sets has grown in psychological importance. There is one quote in the Epilogue that I found personally meaningful. Ultimately, I found the last three chapters and the Epilogue to be the most informative and the most relevant to my interests: The Americanization of Mahjong, Suburban Migrations and Summer Bungalows, and The Paradoxes of Postwar Domesticity. I ended up skimming the mah-jority of the book. While very well-researched and well-written, this book contained way more information and details than I wanted/needed to know. And of course, the candy snacks of chocolate nonpareils and M&Ms that we would try to eat as our mother was setting them out. While very well-researched and well-written, this book contained way more My brother and I reminisce about the sounds and tastes of Mah Jongg as we were growing up: the clicking of the tiles the silence as the game was being played the tiles being called (one dot two crack red dragon) and then the cry of "Mah Jongg" followed by the loud conversations among the women. My brother and I reminisce about the sounds and tastes of Mah Jongg as we were growing up: the clicking of the tiles the silence as the game was being played the tiles being called (one dot two crack red dragon) and then the cry of "Mah Jongg" followed by the loud conversations among the women. No other game has signified both belonging and standing apart in American culture.ĭrawing on photographs, advertising, popular media, and dozens of oral histories, Heinz's rich and colorful account offers the first history of the wildly popular game of mahjong. Raised funds for the war effort and philanthropy. The result was the forging of friendships that lasted decades and the creation of organizations that Heinz also reveals the ways in which women leveraged a game to gain access to respectable leisure. Middle-class housewives, and immigrants alike, mahjong became a quintessentially American game. As it traveled from China to the United States and caught on with Hollywood starlets, high society, ![]() This mass-produced game crossed the Pacific, creating waves of popularity over the twentieth century.Īnnelise Heinz narrates the history of this game to show how it has created a variety of meanings, among them American modernity, Chinese American heritage, and Jewish American women's culture. Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture illustrates how the spaces between tiles and the moments between games have fostered distinct social cultures in the United States. The sound of mahjong tiles connects American expatriates in Shanghai, Jazz Age white Americans, urban Chinese Americans in the 1930s, incarcerated Japanese Americans in wartime, Jewish American suburban mothers, and Air Force officers' wives in the postwar era. ![]() The sound of mahjong tiles connects American expatriates in Shanghai, Jazz Age white Americans, urban Chinese Americans in the 1930s, incarcerated Japanese Americans in wartime, Jewish America How has a game brought together Americans and defined separate ethnic communities? This book tells the first history of mahjong and its meaning in American culture.Ĭlick-click-click. How has a game brought together Americans and defined separate ethnic communities? This book tells the first history of mahjong and its meaning in American culture.
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