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MahJong History
The history of mah jong goes back 4,000 years to a time when Chinese aristocrats were the only people to play this game. The ruling class was so snobby about keeping the game to themselves, that they kept the rules a secret from the Chinese peasants. Mah jong only became public knowledge when China became a republic in 1911.
Until 500AD, Mahjong was a game reserved for aristocrats and it was illegal for the Chinese working class to play. 500AD this law was changed and the popularity of Mahjong in China increased significantly.
Before the 1920’s, Mahjong was a game only played by China and some surrounding countries. Mahjong was introduced to the West mainly by Joseph Park Babcock, an executive for and American Standard Oil Company in Shanghai. He patented the name Mah-jongg and made the tiles and game more user friendly for Westerners. He also imported Mahjong sets to the US. As the game became more popular and well known in the West, companies started importing more Mahjong sets. Different Western versions of Mahjong also developed.
The game was subsequently introduced to the United States in 1920, quickly gaining popularity and spreading across the country. Since the rules came from across an ocean and had to be translated from Chinese, most Americans played with whatever rules they managed to grasp and made up the rest of them. As a result, several different sets of rules emerged. Fortunately, a standardized set of rules was set up in 1925.
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