Real Chinese Opera as Seen on Mahjong Tiles

Kuan Yin • February 26, 2016

Scenes from Ruse of the Empty City, from Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Although I have written about this before, I thought you would enjoy seeing the same story on a couple sets of tiles, and the actual opera.There are many scenes on Mahjong tiles that are parts of Chinese operas. For those of you who do not know, Chinese operas are very different from others. Of course there is some singing, but the singing is minimal. Operas have a lot of music, dancing, pantomime, acrobatics, and always fabulous costumes and sometimes facial painting. Both the costumes and make-up help the viewers understand the status and personality of each character.

On today's post you can see scenes from two different sets of tiles, seen above and in the lower row below, all telling the same story.

flower-BB33 flower — Ruse of the Empty City on the bottom row, courtesy of www.mahjongmahjong.com

Chinese operas celebrate stories known to all Chinese, often taken from the 14th Century book Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The above story, Ruse of the Empty City, from that book, is based on Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu State who, during wartime, was left in a city far from the battlefield. The only people in the city were old and incapable of fighting or defending the city. It had been thought they were safe, but the enemy general, not knowing the city was basically empty, decided to attack it. Zhuge Liang decided the only way to survive was to act non-plussed, welcoming the enemy, hoping the enemy would feel they were walking into a trap. Zhuge got up on top of the city wall and played a musical instrument, and had some of the old men sweep the street, as if preparing for the enemy to walk into the city. The enemy, startled by what they perceived to be an invitation into a trap, quickly left, and the city was saved.

I thought you might enjoy seeing a real opera, showing this story-line. You can see how closely the tiles mimic the real opera scenes, costumes, head-pieces, city walls and all. You will see the people sweeping the fans, the headpieces, etc.These scenes start around the 1:08 mark. Just click on the triangle in the middle of video to start it. You might even want to start the video from the beginning to take in all the unusual costumes, masks, and props.

Happy Year of the Monkey!

Kuan Yin • February 8, 2016

This darling monkey is one of the 12 signs found on a set of charming Mahjong racks made in Asia. The small pieces of bone are inserted into the wood rack and the wood is painted black.

And above are tiles sitting on that rack with the year 2016, led off by a Flower with an image of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, a beloved character in Chinese stories. He is a major player in the novel Journey to the West. The Monkey King often appears on Chinese Bakelite tiles; this is the only set I have seen (that I can remember, anyway!) with this character on bone and bamboo tiles.

Sun Wukong frequently appears in Chinese operas, as you can see below, in a photo taken from Wikipedia.

I went to a Chinese New Year luncheon the other day, and I was just the lucky winner of Neil Somerville's Your Chinese Horoscope 2016, subtitled: What the Year of the Monkey holds in store for you.

Here is some of what he has to say:

..."throughout the year world leaders will frequently confer and in some cases put past animosities behind them and forge new alliances. ..The United States celebrated the start of its nationhood in 1776, a previous year of the Fire Monkey, and in this one, much attention will be focused on the Presidential election. There will be great debate over the direction of domestic and foreign policy as well as increasing focus on American identity, and the campaign will be passionately fought, with some issues proving divisive and sometimes even causing rifts between party supporters."

Well, I won't do any more excerpts, but he certainly has a lot of this right, at least as far as the current political situation in the States is concerned.

I thought it fun to add this photo of monkeys from the 1920s, I believe, at the mahjong table. I highly doubt they played the game, but they probably enjoyed the tiles. In this Year of the Monkey, let's hope for some good times around the mahjong table, playing a game rich with possibilities, strategy and luck, intersperced with great merriment and camaraderie.

Fox Sunshine Comedies produced a short showing chimpanzees playing the game, with a photo featured in Photoplay magazine.

Thought you might laugh about the background I picked for the "photoshoot." I found something red, a good luck color. And yes, the book was upside down, but doesn't this look like a monkey?

And if any of you want to read about the Monkey King, here is the article in Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong

Bone or Ivory and Mahjong Tiles

Kuan Yin • January 8, 2016

Many people think they have ivory mahjong sets, either because they assume they do or that is what they have been told. Some people do have ivory tiles, but most people don't. But just because tiles are not made of ivory does not mean they are less valuable. In fact, some of the most expensive sets sold recently are bone and bamboo, not ivory and bamboo or pure ivory.

Why is it that some sets made of bone are more expensive than those made of ivory? The answer is simple: it is all about the carving and the designs on the tiles. In the 1920s, the heyday for Mahjong designers and carvers, China was very poor and ivory was in short supply. In fact, bone was scarce too. When China ran out of bone they were able to purchase some from the United States, from the stockyards in Chicago and the cattle ranchers in Nebraska. The best parts of the bone were bought by the best workshops, and they turned out high quality sets. Of course ivory was carved in the best workshops too, but it might have been that the shops were depending more on the ivory material alone to sell the set, and thus were not as inspired to make sets with wonderful designs that would make people want to buy the tiles.

This exquisite bone and bamboo set, seen below, recently sold for almost $10,000. And yes, for bone and bamboo, but look at the carvings and the images. Absolutely beautiful. In fact, each tile is a masterpiece. The Dots come first (peaches, with the One Dot a curled up Dragon often copied as joker tiles on the modern sets), Winds with butterflies in the corners, and Dragons with dragons and phoenixes, Flowers perhaps illustrating a tale of combat, and Craks with special Chinese numbers usually used by banks, surrounded by longevity symbols including endless knots, and Bams made of Bamboo shoots (and look at that divine One Bam bird with the ribbon in its mouth, symbolizing China's military strength).

This next set is solid ivory, and it sold for less than half of the above set. It is easy to see why. Yes, the carving is lovely, but the designs are much more unusual and intricate on the bone and bamboo set.

You will notice that the surface of the ivory is smooth.

Bone often has small channels in it, the haversian system, as you can see below, even in this very beautifully carved set.

note small dots on the side of the bone, remnants of the haversian system

Below are two photos of ivory, seen from the top and the side.

notice the slightly wavy varied tones in these ivory tiles

the cross-hatching only found in ivory is noticeable on the sides of these tiles

Ivory has cross-hatching known as Schreger lines, but sometimes several pieces need to be examined to see it, depending on where on the tusk the pieces came from. For more views of ivory, please click here to see the page devoted to ivory and French Ivory.

Happy 2016

Kuan Yin • January 1, 2016

Friend and blog reader Cari took this lovely photo the other day of the National Mah Jongg League's 2015 hand. It calls for 2 Flowers, followed by the year repeated three times in the three suits. In all hands calling for a zero, the White Dragon is used. What is wonderful about this hand is that many of the most special tiles, the Ones, and the Flowers are used, and often the White Dragon is quite lovely too.

So, I thought it would be fun to celebrate 2016 showing the great variety of styles and images on Mahjong sets. A big thanks to the readers who took photos and sent them in, including Barney, Tracy, Geraldine, Debra, Gail and Cari, as well as the others. We have a delightful array of sets, showing the great variety of ways designers and craftsmen have added beauty to this fabulous game, ranging from paper cards, to wood, to bakelite, Chinese Bakelite, bone and bamboo, and mother-of-pearl. All of these sets are treasured by their owners, and all have brought great happiness to the players around the table. What better way to celebrate the new year than by looking at art that has made people happy?

A mass-produced and highly collectible Chinese Bakelite set with unusual Flowers and Bams

A Lung Chan set, with two tone (blue) backs. Lung Chan features a suite of bird Flowers.

The tiles in the middle feature mother-of-pearl faces set in wood

Delightful Bone and Bamboo set with animal Flowers

from back to front: Waterbury Button Company, Marke Pehafra, rare Chinese Bakelite two-tone pillow-top set

The following eight contributions belong to one collector:

children's Royal Depth Control traveling set

TYL two-tone Bakelite set from the 1940s (backs are chocolate-brown)

Beautiful Thick Bone and Bamboo tiles, Peach (longevity) Dots with One Dot encircling a coiled Dragon, different longevity symbols on Craks with Bank-style Chinese numbers, Bamboo shoot Bams with hovering hawk symbolizing China's strength

Chinese Game Company with special Dragons

The wonderful variety of mahjong sets, including paper cards, wood, and Portland Billiard Company (the first set behind the front cards)

beautiful sloping circles, label unknown

Red MJ — highly carved set featuring crane (longevity) Dots, peacock Bams, and Craks with bats (longevity and prosperity) on the sides

Magnificent Bone and Bamboo set with lacquer box

Here's a close-up of the Craks suit from this hand. If you look carefully, you can see peaches on the top and bottom. Peaches are symbols of longevity in China. And on the left and right there are bats, also symbols of longevity, but because of the way the Chinese word for bat is pronounced, the bat also symbolizes prosperity. Dragonflies, seen on the White Dragon, represent pureness of character according to Confucian ideals.

So let us hope that 2016 is a year of longevity, prosperity, and pureness of character.

2016 in Mahjong tiles

Kuan Yin • December 28, 2015

Recently a friend took a beautiful photo of mahjong tiles "spelling out" 2016, in the NMJL way of play which asks for 2 Flowers, followed by 2 1 and 6 of each suit , allowing the White Dragon to serve as zero. (In The National Mah Jongg League way of play the White Dragon is the zero when "spelling" out the year.) It is a wonderful "hand" showing some of the best tiles in each set.

I thought it would be fun to have readers send in their favorite sets "spelling" this out too. So, if you can, please take photos starting with 2 Flowers, then the Dots, Bams and Craks, and email them in to me.They will be part of the New Year's Mahjong Treasures post. I will not share your identity unless you want me to. If there is a story to the set, I'd love for you to share it with me and I will include it here as well as on the facebook group Mahjong Memories. Please become a member of that group if you like.

The top set is a lovely Chinese bakelite one, with beautiful unusual Flowers, the One Bam hawk over the globe, and the frame White Dragon. The One Bams resemble both golf tees and flat-head screws.

The bottom set is Lung Chan, known for its lovely suite of bird Flowers, two of which are seen here. The tiles are two-tone with a lovely blue on the bottom.

Mahjong is “for the Birds” Part 1

Kuan Yin • December 25, 2015

If anyone tells you "Mahjong is for the birds," you might respond "How right you are! Mahjong is and has always been about the birds." The game was named the game of sparrows, because of the noise of the tiles on the table. And, almost from the beginning, designers and carvers knew that beautiful bird One Bams could be the selling point for sets. That is why only the best carvers made the One Bams, and the Flowers. The workshop that produced this bone and bamboo Mahjong set certainly had very skilled carvers. The suits are elaborate, with a somewhat simple flying peacock One Bam.

But oh, these Flowers:

One of my friends is a serious birder, and she helped with some of the bird identifications, although she said that some liberties had been taken with the renderings. But here are what she thinks the birds are:

top row

#3 parrot

#2 heron, ibis or stork

bottom:

#1 dollar bird or hawk based on flat head and the way it is sitting

Anyone else have any ideas?

There's a new ebook with this title, Mahjong is for the Birds, one that helps people to identify vintage plastic sets and get an understanding about their relative value. You can find it at www.mahjongmahjong.com

A Short Celebration of Celebrities on Mahjong Tiles!

Kuan Yin • September 20, 2015

We all know how wild people can be about their favorite stars, whether people on the stage and screen or sports stars on the field or the court. Things were not so very different for mahjong carvers backs in China in the 1920s and 1930s; the cult of celebrities existed even back then. The carvers were spreading political messages and giving publicity to some of their favorite stars.

Above are some of the most delightful Mahjong tiles I have ever seen. Fairies and ballet dancers– what could be more charming?

Interestingly, there are messages on the tiles. The top row translates to mean "women's liberty" (thank you, Ray) so perhaps a hope for equal rights for women, dating from the 1930s in all probability.

The bottom row is quite fascinating as well. It celebrates a particular Chinese actress. The tiles translate as :

Bottom row are 舞影明星, Wu Yin Ming Xing, "A film and dance celebrity". Thanks to additional help by another friend, we know who that is: Wu Yin was also known as Yan Ying, and she was an actress working for the Mingxing film company in the 1930s. From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Yin_(actress)

One of the movies she acted in details some of the troubles of being a young modern woman, so the Women's liberty translations might well tie in directly with the bottom row of tiles. New Women features scenes in a dance hall, so perhaps it is not surprising that we have dancers shown.

From Wikipedia, Wu Yin. Her life was quite interesting, and she really proved herself to be a survivor.

And other actors are celebrated on other hand-carved Mahjong tiles as well. Here on a Bone and Bamboo set, probably from the early 1920s, we see four images.

From Ray Heaton:

I'm pretty sure one set is Qin Qiong mai ma 秦瓊賣馬 (‘Qin Qiong sells his horse’)

Qin Qiong (also known as Qin Shubao 秦叔寶), spent his early career fighting to overthrow the Sui dynasty. He eventually rose to become a general in the early Tang and continued to be honoured by the emperor after he died in 638. He was also an important figure in much later works of historical fiction. The opera 'Selling the Horse' is centred on a situation in which the great hero finds himself stranded without money to pay his bill at an inn and is forced to sell his horse. Because he has been ill and unable to care for it properly, the horse is emaciated, and he is unable to find a buyer until a perceptive man named Shan Xiongxin 單雄信 recognizes the quality of the steed. But before the deal is consummated, Shan receives word that his brother has been shot by the Tang founder, Li Yuan 李淵. Qin allows Shan to race off on his horse without paying. The only things of value the Qin has left are his prized weapons, a pair of heavy riding-crop-like rods that are used like maces for clubbing or whacking (they are called shuangjian 雙簡 in Chinese). Two other heroes of the age who are Qin’s admirers find him and get him out of his predicament.

Around the turn of the century (1900 that is), Tan Xinpei’s performance of the role of Qin Qiong in the opera of the same name as on the tiles, Qin Qiong Mai Ma, made him the equivalent of today’s mega-star. A saying of the time was that the people of Beijing had no time to concern themselves with the rise or fall of their country; everyone in the whole city was competing in shouting his stage name.

This photo from the Chinese Mirror

Here's an extract about the actor.

From Chinese Mirror

Tan Xinpei谭鑫培 (1847-1917) was born Tan Jinfu, a native of Jiangxia (now Wuchang), Hubei. In his earlier career, under the stage name Xiao Jiaotian, Tan specialized in both heroic and comic male military roles in Beijing (Peking) opera. As he entered middle age, he began transitioning to the older, bearded male characters known as "lao sheng" 老生, then formed his own company to implement and popularize a new performing style he had developed for years, a style which combined singing, speaking, acting and fighting in each individual performer, rather having each of these skills performed by individual specialists. This new approach, which became known as the "Tan School," soon became dominant in Beijing opera in the latter 19th century. In 1905, he collaborated with photographer Ren Qingtai to record excerpts from some of the actor's classic roles on film, making Tan Xinpei the first actor in China's motion picture history.

http://www.chinesemirror.com/index/2006/10/tan-xinpei-1847.html

From arts.cultural-china.com:

and

So the costumes were not so very different from what we have on many mahjong sets, right?

Perhaps this is the equivalent of what we have going on these days, with celebrities being featured in games, board games and card games alike.

Enjoy this trip down memory lane:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/83091157/

And don't forget all those video games too!!

I am undertaking a new project involving the social history of the game. You can read about by clicking History Project at the top of the Page. Perhaps you would like to participate. I also have a group (not the page) on Facebook: Mahjong Memories.

For those of you who don't yet know, there is a wonderful magazine, The Mahjong Collector. A big round of applause for all who work so hard to publish it.

You can find out more by emailing them at this address:

subscriptions@mahjongcollector.com

To see when I am doing author appearances, click here

You can now follow me on Twitter!

@MahJonggGregg

To learn more about Mah Jongg, you might want to take a look at this book that I wrote with Ann Israel, published by Tuttle.

www.mahjonggtheartof thegame.com

To order it click here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

or here from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Mah-Jongg-Collectors-Guide-Tiles/dp/4805313234/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1414844427&sr=8-7&keywords=mah+jongg

Beautiful Purple Set • 2 Comments

Kuan Yin • August 26, 2015

A very lucky reader sent me photos of her newest Mahjong set. She confessed she had taken a big risk at auction, not having been able to see photos of any tiles close up. She was delighted when the box arrived and she knew this time her instinct was correct, and her excitement about this purchase got her to send me photos to post on this blog . According to her, the colors of the tiles are true in these photos. It seems all the colors in the tiles were painted. And the sharp crisp corners of the tiles indicate perhaps a German or Austrian manufacturer.

This is one of those great times when a set is rare, the colors are fabulous, and the designs terrific. Purple tiles allow for many different color effects on the tiles themselves. Here on the Bamboos we see yellow instead of our usual green. The flying crane of longevity is simple in the white outline with his red legs and bill. The 8 Bams have a real Art Deco look to me.

The One Dots look like targets, don't they? What's interesting here is that you can see that all the tiles are not the same size, despite being machine made.

The Winds, Dragons and Flowers certainly don't disappoint with their unique and spirited Character renditions, all very angular in keeping with the squared off quality of the tiles themselves. The Flowers have a neon sign look to them, don't they? The top ones are the Four Arts of the Scholar and the lower ones flowers, although not the traditional ones we usually see.

Who would have thought the Craks would be a favorite suit? Everything about the spirited Chinese numbers and Characters delights the eye, including the colors.

The Wind Indicators and the counters are the same beautiful material and color. All beautiful, don't you think?

Maybe she will have to learn how to play the Hong Kong version, Wright-Patterson or another form of the game so that she can play with the set!

I am undertaking a new project involving the social history of the game. You can read about by clicking History Project at the top of the Page. Perhaps you would like to participate.

For those of you who don't yet know, there is a wonderful magazine, The Mahjong Collector. You can find out more by emailing them at this address:

subscriptions@mahjongcollector.com

To see when I am doing author appearances, click here

You can now follow me on Twitter!

@MahJonggGregg

To learn more about Mah Jongg, you might want to take a look at this book that I wrote with Ann Israel, published by Tuttle.

www.mahjonggtheartof thegame.com

To order it click here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

or here from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Mah-Jongg-Collectors-Guide-Tiles/dp/4805313234/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1414844427&sr=8-7&keywords=mah+jongg

Spectacular Thick Bone Set • 2 Comments

Kuan Yin • August 19, 2015

This fabulous set did not last on ebay for long, (maybe half a minute?), but I thought I would be remiss not to share the photos of it with all of you who did not even get a chance to see it. To begin with, it is in unbelievable shape given that it is getting close to being 100 years old. It was made for export, as can be seen by the Arabic numbers and Western letters. The One Bam birds are among the prettiest I have ever seen. In China, eagles, falcons and hawks represent boldness. A hawk standing on one leg, as we have here, can be a rebus for "a hero stands alone, peerless," because the homophone for eagle is one of the two Chinese characters that comprise the word "hero" in Chinese. This bird is on a lotus; a lotus symbolizes purity and perfection because it "rises undefiled from impure muddy waters" ((Bjaaland Welch), and it is also a symbol of Buddhism.

One Dots like this always remind me of those wonderful Chinese porcelain decorative balls.

The Flowers are simple, and delicately carved.The top row from left to right are bindweed (?), lotus, peach, and oranges(?). The bottom row are the expected plants, associated with the seasons: plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum.

And just look at the thickness of the bone:

As you may know, the thicker the bone, the more expensive, thus the more experienced and skilled the craftsmen who made them.

And just look at this wonderful box! The crane and the eagle are painted on the front panel.

Interesting that the set was updated, in all probability, by an owner, who placed the plastic counters in the drawer, adding a bit of personal history to the set.

Pips (added small dots) on Flower Tiles

Kuan Yin • August 15, 2015

This set was recently auctioned off on Liveauctioneers.com

You will quickly notice the lack of Western letters and Arabic numbers which indicate the set was not meant to be exported from China, but somehow or other it finally made its way out of China to the States.

If you look carefully at the Flower tiles, you'll see there are two sets of dots, one set is dark, and the other one red. Each set has tiles with 1, 2, 3, or 4 dots on them. Tiles like this show up from time to time. You may know that often Flower tiles have numbers on them, two sets of numbers in red and green, numbering from 1 to 4. These tiles have pips that represent the number associated with each tile. For many of us, the number on Flower tiles does not make a difference, but for others who play Hong Kong style, for example, these numbers do make a difference, because each player has a number associated with their seat; if they get the tile associated with their seat, they get an extra point in that game. So from time to time you'll see pips on tiles, and at other times Arabic numbers might be added. It is possible that this set has pips because the rest of the set does not have any Western letters or Arabic numbers, and pips are in keeping with the type of set it is. It is hard to tell from the photo but these pips may have been carved into the tile; sometimes pips and numbers are added in pen or pencil.

There are a few other interesting aspects to the set, proving that photographs can be deceiving. From the top photo it looks like a Chinese Bakelite set because of all the yellow tint. However it is actually French Ivory, as seen in these next photographs.

You can see the alternating colors on the tile, indicating it is French Ivory.

And the true color is probably closer to this:

The White Dragons, seen in the top photo, are pretty wonderful too.

I am undertaking a new project involving the social history of the game. You can read about by clicking History Project at the top of the Page. Perhaps you would like to participate.

For those of you who don't yet know, there is a wonderful magazine, The Mahjong Collector. You can find out more by emailing them at this address:

subscriptions@mahjongcollector.com

To see when I am doing author appearances, click here

You can now follow me on Twitter!

@MahJonggGregg

To learn more about Mah Jongg, you might want to take a look at this book that I wrote with Ann Israel, published by Tuttle.

www.mahjonggtheartof thegame.com

To order it click here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

or here from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Mah-Jongg-Collectors-Guide-Tiles/dp/4805313234/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1414844427&sr=8-7&keywords=mah+jongg