Guess where mahjong is gaining a foothold?
Chinese New Year is around the corner, but it is not just the Chinese who are pulling out their mahjong tables. 16,000 kilometers away, the Chinese board game is rapidly gaining a small but quickly growing foothold in Denmark.
From its humble beginnings in a local café in eastern Copenhagen, mahjong has evolved into a trend in recent years as many Danes seeking an intellectually challenging pastime have fallen in love with the Chinese board game.
According to a recent Xinhua News article, Mahjong Denmark (MD), a national association for Danish mahjong players was founded in 2000. The association started out with a handful of members meeting to play at a local café and had about 50 members to date, who gathered once a week in the community center.
Members of MD range from all walks of life, including ethnic Danes, Chinese, East Asian residents and other expatriates living in Denmark. It is now recognized as an official sports organization and has joined the European Mahjong Association (EMA).
Its chairman and president, Tina Christensen was inspired by the beauty of the tiles, which she said were exotic.
“Later, I became fascinated by the many variants in the game. When you get a new hand of tiles, you have a new mystery to solve, and that is very fascinating,” she told Xinhua.
Another MD member, Morten Andersen, a student of computer science, told the Chinese website, “There is a strong social aspect which makes it nice to play like this. It is not just about playing but also about socializing,”
The first EMA European championship was held in 2005 in the Netherlands, which is known in popular circles as the cradle of European Mahjong culture. Check out the video of the Open European Mahjong Championship in 2005.
So as mahjong “season” gets underway next week all across the island, don’t be surprised we may soon face fierce competition from our European counterparts.
