From Ma Diao to Mah-Jong

 

A while ago, I became intrigued with a relatively old Chinese game called Mah-Jong. Now, before I proceed any further, please understand that there are many ways to write this word, regardless please accept my spelling for this game’s name which I will hence forth spell out as “Mah-Jong” dash included.

The story of how I came about Mah-jong for the first time must trace its origins to an old solitaire-type game I used to play in the early days of the Internet back in the mid-90’s. That game was essentially tile-matching but I had grown particularly fond of the tiles and the symbols on them. When I later discovered they could be bought as gaming sets I literally bought the first one I came across online through eBay. The set I bought back then was a travelling set with rather diminutive tiles but I was still totally fascinated by them. However I did a totally blotched job of trying to sell the idea of playing what is essentially a 4-player game to family and some friends with the result that I did not find the necessary gaming partners to get things going. As a consequence I just stowed that box someplace, totally forgot all about it until now.

Some months ago a quick search on the Internet revealed a whole smorgasbord of information concerning this game. I discovered for the first time ever not only one set of rules but diverse ways to play the game. I learned that the Japanese variation was becoming increasingly popular even though in my opinion it is not suited for beginners to Mah-jong. I downloaded various rule books including those for the Chinese International version but they all had the same problem as far as I was concerned, they just felt too complex at least for a beginner.

As I always do I began to adapt the game, putting rules together piecemeal from diverse variations in order to arrive at a rule set I could present to family and friends without bewildering them. I would like to believe that I succeeded in that. Slowly my choice of rules gravitated in a synchronistical way towards a format strongly reminiscent of the British Majhong (yes without the dash) Association variation…which was when I finally found and purchased their official Mah-jong rulebook. Sadly the BMA is not that active in the UK which is a pity given that the rule set is sound and does offer a sound basis for beginner level play.

The more I play the game the more I realise just how brilliant it really is. It plays like rummy to an extent but then the rules differ considerably when it comes to what scores most points. It’s also a game that allows you to play it at many levels. A beginner level allows you to come to terms with the game and develop a feel for the strategy required; a more advanced level forces you to think harder in order to build hands of increased complexity.

Yet the real mystery lies in the history of this game. At first the impression I was given was that this game was an ancient one dating back several hundred years when in fact this is not the case. As I later found out, though this again is open to debate, the tile-based Mah-jong game was an invention of some Chinese army officers in the 1800’s but based (and here’s the catch) on an even older card game called Ma Diao.

Several internet  searches later I discovered that Ma Diao was a popular card-based game during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD). The deck used was composed of 40 cards. There were four suits as follows

·         The Wen Suit – 1 to 9 plus an additional “½ Wen” which was also known as the “Flower” and a card called “No Wen”  also known as the “Blank”

·         The Suo Zi Suit –1 to 9 with no additional cards

·         The Wan Suit – Again 1 to 9 with no additional cards

·         Then Shi Suit which had 11 cards numbered 200,000 to 900,000 (in steps of 100,000) with an additional three cards number 1 Million, 10 Million and 100 Million. This last card was also called the Red Ten Thousand.

I have found that Ma Diao was essentially a trick-taking game for 4 players in much the same way as Mah-jong is a 4-player game. From a first foray into understanding what this precursor of Mah-jong was all about it would appear that the game dynamics were very different but I have still to find a comprehensive set of rules in order to better understand what this game was really all about.

What is apparent at least is that three suits out of the original four passed on into Mah-jong and were then quadrupled so that you now have 4 of each tile in each of the three suits used in Mah-jong. In Mah-jong you in fact still find the Wen suit or circles/coins, the Suo Zi Suit or bamboos and the Wan suit or characters.

The Dragon tiles you find in Mah-jong are also considered, according to some sources, evolutions from three cards present in the Ma Diao card deck. The Red Ten thousand became the Red Dragon, the Flower from the Wen Suit became the Green Dragon and not surprisingly the No Wen (Blank) became the White dragon which is represented as a blank tile in some Mah-jong sets.

This strong link between what was essentially a card game and the tile-based version we know as Mah-jong is what led me to do some research into Ma Diao, so far I have only identified a paper describing this game but I’m having some problems sourcing it since it is currently not freely available on the internet. If I get lucky, this blog will definitely get to know about it! Wish me luck!

 

NEXT VIDEO BLOG COMING SOON – For those asking, I will be posting a new video blog over the coming days.

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In this second video clip I review a card game called "Five Crowns" as well as a special promotional Poker Kit  from Marlboro.

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What are Playing Cards Made of?

 

When you happen to collect cards you will tend to notice that there are indeed diverse types of card stock finishes and qualities. A cheap card stock can make for a terrible deck making handling a nightmare. I think I have so far been exposed to several types of card stock at least sufficiently to be able to differentiate between a quality deck and a poor mass-produced deck.

Paper Stock

Let’s start by considering some of the more common types of paper card stock and just go over what they are all about. First and at the lowest end of the food chain so to speak we have cards which are simply plastic coated. The plastic coat offers a minimal level of usability but in most instances the cards don’t glide well over each other, they feel awful. With few exceptions, a substantial quantity of Chinese mass-produced cards are made of this stuff. Poorly laminated cards that simply have nothing going on for them except price. These decks are usually dirt cheap but the quality of the stock says it all. Having said this, and as you will be shown in one of my upcoming video blogs there are some very high quality card manufacturers in China which goes to show that when a company puts heart into what it produces it can be from anywhere in the world.

On step up from the “vanilla” plastic coated cards, again I have a few in my collection they have been added because of some other intrinsic feature which does not include stock quality, we get the linen finish cards. It’s still plastic coated cards we’re talking about but now we have a slightly thicker, somewhat durable plastic coat which may additionally be textured. This thicker coat makes for a deck that can take a sensible amount of handling and actually feel quite good in your hands. One of the decks brands I have grown fond of and which uses this kind of finish is the Piatnik & Sons bridge size decks (No.1352) which as I explained in a previous blog entry are quite common in Malta. Since I have handled various decks from this particular brand and finish over the years I can actually say that they do in fact last long  even though they are essentially just plastic coated paper stock.

As we progress one step higher in terms of quality, we arrive to another interesting progression which has made paper stock cards from Bicycle popular among card  handlers and enthusiasts. Bicycle paper stock cards are coated with a special plastic coat that offers increased ease of handling, holding a fresh deck in your hands feels incredible. For starters the cards glide easily one over the other, if you are not careful you could end up dropping cards without noticing. Shuffling these decks feels smooth and you realise that in spite of handling paper cards the experience is definitely that of handling a superior deck. If you happen to be dealing these cards, the slightest flick can send a card gliding over a felt covered table with ease, again a very satisfying experience. Bicycle aren’t the only company that produces such cards but I happen to have quite a few decks in my collection so I know these decks somewhat better.

Plastic

There is plastic and plastic and nothing could be more noticeable than when you handle plastic playing cards. Most playing cards are made of PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride to be more exact) plastic but the manufacturing process adopted differ substantially from one brand to another. Unfortunately while not really wanting to denigrate Chinese products, I must say that once again the less impressive plastic cards I have handled were produced in China. The plastic adopted in some of the decks that come from there is rather stiff, perhaps too stiff to be manageable in my modest opinion. Shuffling them using a classical casino style shuffle or a riffle shuffle feels awkward at best and the edges feel like they are trying to cut through your finger tips. Thankfully there are a lot of good card manufacturers out there who use a sensible stock that is indeed a pleasure to work with.

By far one of the best plastic card stocks (at least in my opinion) must be the one used by Copag. Copag plastic decks are very durable, it takes a lot of game play to start seeing some card warping which is very important for me at least, they are washable and they are really a pleasure to work with and deal. I believe I have over a dozen Copag decks in my collection, all distinct and offering some a specific feature that makes them stand out from the rest.

Another reputable brand that produces great PVC cards is Fournier from Spain. I love the vibrancy of the colours on these decks and again the quality of the plastic is really good even though I must admit they tend to gum up slightly faster than the Copag decks I have. Still they too are washable (warm soap and a sponge only) so worst case after some time you could always clean them in this way to return them to their original state. Additionally if simple washing does not do the trick you could always use a very small quantity of what is known as a fanning powder (Mostly a Zinc stearate powder) that restores that easy gliding sensation to old or heavily used cards. One drawback is that you cannot use these powders on a black deck (such as the Copag Epoc reviewed in my first video review) because they will give it a greyish patina that will impair the aesthetic of the deck. Card magicians use these powders to improve the manageability of the older decks they use.

Another manufacturer of plastic cards worth nothing is KEM. To be quite frank I don’t like KEM decks, the
material they employ feels thinner and too delicate for my tastes and the deck tends to warp immediately, again something I don’t quite fancy in a deck of cards. KEM do not use PVC in their decks but they claim to use Cellulose Acetate instead. This substance feels significantly finer in your hands but is also the reason I do not fancy them all that much. I have two types of KEM branded decks in my collection, a double poker-sized set with an arrow motif in red and blue on the back and a replica of the bridge-sized poker decks with poker peek indexes just like those that had been used in the World Series Of Poker of 2007. To be quite fair with KEM, the bridge sized decks have a lesser tendency to warp (maybe something to do with the width of the cards) and feel much better in your hands than the other set I have. Also, and this is something that really got to me in a strange, good way, KEM use some kind of additional lubricant on their cards that smells waxy. In fact the first time I opened a KEM deck I could not help but notice this very distinct odour that reminded me of wax crayons or pastels. While writing this blog I came across a number of sites that claim that KEM cards are more durable, last longer so on and so forth. I personally would not go so far as to glorify the qualities of this brand, I’m still not convinced these cards are worth having more than, let us say, a Copag or Fournier deck. In my opinion they’re just more expensive.

Another two brands that produce plastic cards and which I have used in play are those produced by Modiano and Dal Negro. Both are Italian brands, and offer a sturdy stock that is comfortable to handle. The Dal Negro decks are trusty and take on a lot of games without losing too much of their spring. My first ever plastic poker deck was a Dal Negro twin set I had bought from Sicily. I used these decks during a number of friendly poker evenings back at home and they still feel fairly good to shuffle and handle showing only minimal warping after several hours and rounds of play. The Modiano decks on the other hand feel very firm in your hands and keep their spring and shape. I have not used them extensively so I cannot judge their durability as at this time.

That is basically my take on the materials from which cards are made. Maybe in time card manufacturers will come up with something else, a new shape-retaining material that remains perfect even after years of usage. There again, maybe it would not be such a good thing for business because people would not buy more cards then.

Will be posting a new video review soon, I will be focusing on more decks from my collection and perhaps explore some more interesting titbits about cards, games and all that.

Until next time!

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