A Brief History of American Mahjong
American mahjong is a century-old story of craze, community and reinvention — and it explains why the American game is so different from the Chinese original.
The 1920s Mahjong Craze
Mahjong arrived in the United States around 1920, popularized by Joseph Park Babcock, a Standard Oil representative who had learned the game in Suzhou. Babcock simplified the rules, printed “Rules of Mah-Jongg” (the famous red book), and sparked a full-blown national craze. By 1923, mahjong sets were selling faster than radios, and department stores hosted mahjong nights in ballrooms.
The Crash and the Reinvention
The fad collapsed by the late 1920s under a flood of cheap sets and confusing rule variants. What saved mahjong in America was reinvention: in 1937, a group of players — largely from Jewish communities in New York — founded the National Mah Jongg League and published a standardized annual card of hands. That card created a distinctly American game: jokers, the Charleston, and hands that change every year.
Mahjong as Community
Through the mid-20th century, mahjong became a social institution in Jewish-American communities — summer resorts, synagogue sisterhoods and weekly games that passed from mothers to daughters. The game was less about tiles than about the table: friendship, routine and conversation.
The Modern Revival
Since the 2020s, American mahjong has exploded again. Celebrities host games, stylish new sets sell out, and a generation of 20- and 30-somethings is learning at game nights and community classes. If you are part of the new wave, welcome — start with how to play American mahjong and you will be shuffling tiles this week.