DDA recently held our first fun evening learning to play the ancient Chinese game of Mahjong (Majiang) with Ms Julie Lim.
???? 
Julie, who was born and grew up in Sydney, Australia, introduced the rules and ways to play the game, de-mystifying this integral part of Chinese social life and culture.
Julie, who is bi-lingual, lived in Shanghai for 9 years, working as an English language teaching professional for Australian, British and Canadian institutions and is now based back in Sydney, working at the University of NSW.
She developed an interest in Mahjong from a young age, when, because of the constant weekend noise of Mahjong tiles being shuffled in her grandfather’s apartment below, she was unable to fall asleep. This would continue until the early morning hours when one game would finally come to an end.
???? ?
In this workshop, Julie introduced the basic steps of how to play a Mahjong round, according to the rules and scoring system played by the Hakkas in southern China and explained how the tiles are used and how a losing player can even turn their luck around with the right strategy.
?
Julie said that at first the game can seem complicated and sometimes maybe very noisy, but is actually a highly strategic and ingenious, yet fun and addictive game.
The event was held at the Ming Shen Fitness Centre and Social Club, on Wu Zhong Road, in Gu Bei District, where we had the use of the VIP Majiang Suite, complete with automatic tables and revolving tile reset functions!
The evening started with an introduction of the individual pieces, how to score and play your hand, giving all the participants a good groundwork in the game.
????? 
First, Julie took everyone through an open hand game, facilitating the players’ understanding, with the subsequent closed-hand games testing everybody’s observational and strategic skills, which soon had all the players engrossed.
There were many winners during the evening, with the prize of chocolate biscuits much appreciated!
It really was a fun evening, many thanks to Julie for her wonderful introduction to this fascinating game.
We hope to make this a regular annual event, so will keep everyone posted on Julie’s next visit.
For more information about our events or to arrange a cultural evening, please contact Rose Oliver for details.?