Mah-Jongg Mania
How the Chinese tile game swept Nantucket.
Written by Brian Bushard
Photography by Kit Noble
How a 19th-century Chinese men’s league game became a sensation in Jewish women’s groups in New York City still baffles some of the women who play it. Mah-jongg—a “pick and throw” game of slides and tiles engraved with Chinese characters—has since gotten a foothold among a younger crowd, despite its reputation as an old women’s game. (The Washington Post recently labeled it “grandma’s favorite game.”)
On Nantucket, they play around a square table every week, whether it’s in their own home, a friend’s house or an inn or hotel. The game has become so popular on the island, you might even find people playing on an inflatable table on the beach—one of a growing number of game accessories that have become collector’s items. While it might come as a surprise that mah-jongg became as popular as it has on the island, the women who play it every Monday afternoon over a bottle of wine saw it coming.
“At first, there was a stigma about it as just an old ladies’ game. How boring is that?” said Robin Slick, one of the leaders of the mah-jongg group on Nantucket. “But it’s taken over in a new way. It’s a social event where we play a game and drink wine.” Come Monday, they’ll be gathered around a square table with their own tile sets and probably a glass of rosé—just like they did the previous Monday and just like they will do the next Monday. Places like the Nantucket Hotel and The Summer House are also falling like dominoes to the mah-jongg craze. Sometimes, Slick will see impromptu games among people she’s never met, including one game on the sand at Galley Beach.
“A new generation took a dusty old game and made it cool,” said Tanya McQueen Forman, a TV producer who hosts summer mah-jongg games at her house in ’Sconset. While the game itself consists of a complicated set of rules about matching tiles and betting, these weekly mah-jongg gatherings aren’t so much about winning as they are an opportunity to simply meet up with friends.
While mah-jongg has been played on Nantucket for decades, the weekly gatherings took off during COVID, first as online get-togethers in the thick of the pandemic, and later as a regular activity at a rotating group of homes on the island. “It simmered during COVID, and it’s on fire now,” McQueen Forman said. “It’s finding a reason to put down your phone and play together, and sometimes the only commonality is mah-jongg. It doesn’t matter where you came from or how old you are. The game is the common thread.”
The game happens in a hurry, a series of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moves that keep players’ eyes glued to the table—though not too complicated that players can’t gossip while they’re playing. To play, a group of four assembles around a table, forming matching or consecutive sets of tiles to rack up points, a tile version of gin rummy.
In recent years, the game has taken on a life of its own. Meghan Markle talked about it on her lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan. The game also made an appearance in the 2018 romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians. Even fashion brands like Ralph Lauren and Hermès have designed luxury mah-jongg sets that sell for thousands of dollars. Two other companies now sell Nantucket-inspired sets.
McQueen Forman grew up watching her mother-in-law play the game but didn’t show any interest in those days. “I didn’t know what it was, couldn’t spell it and didn’t really care,” she said. Slick was introduced to the game in her mid-30s alongside a group of new moms in the Berkshires. When she moved to Nantucket in 2019, one of her first calls was to Congregation Shirat Hayam to see if they organized mah-jongg games. Heather Merrill, who plays every Monday, only heard about the game when she watched it played on the big screen in Crazy Rich Asians. It was a coincidence when Slick asked her to play two years ago. Now she’s at the table every Monday.
“I was curious what the game was, and when we moved to the island, I said I would just love to find community again,” Merrill said. “It gives you the excuse to get together. It's making something out of nothing in a way, but also an opportunity to have conversations over drinks while you’re playing this game.”
At the end of the day, camaraderie is the name of the game. Usually, nobody is keeping score, and while it is a betting game, the most a player can lose in any one game is $5. Instead, it’s about building a community around people you might not otherwise meet and developing lasting friendships. Slick compares it to the 1978 rom-com Same Time, Next Year, about an affair kept in the shadows, except for one weekend when Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn rekindle a secret love. Mah-jongg is not an affair and it’s not a secret, she clarified, but it is a means to come back to a group of friends, at the same time, every Monday.
"We've become the closest friends,” McQueen Forman said. “Sometimes the only commonality you have is you know how to play mah-jongg or want to learn, and from there friendship stems. I look forward to 3 p.m. on Monday every week. It teases your brain. It’s the communal nature of it—a gathering, a sense of time. Blocking out a time that you look forward to."
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