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Since then, China's mahjong "national technology" has quickly taken root in Europe, America, Japan and other countries, and Japan has also established the "Mahjong Museum".
Now, the World Mahjong Organization organizes the Mahjong World Championship every two years.
Foreign "Ma You" people believe that mahjong is the quintessence of China, which embodies the virtue of thinking and deserves to be protected as a world heritage.
How was Mahjong Enlightenment Book born?
In the 1920s, more and more westerners came to China for gold. They were surprised to find that there is an entertainment project in China, which is even more attractive than movies that are popular all over the world. The slogan outside the cinema is advertising words such as "Mahjong can be played every day, but good movies are not necessarily available". Surprised, foreigners who came to China began to learn to play mahjong for recreation.
At this time, a Moses-like figure appeared in the history of western mahjong. John Babcock, who worked in Suzhou Mobil Oil Company, was the first person to try to organize and standardize mahjong in English. 1924, he published a "babcock Mahjong Rules Manual" to teach westerners to play mahjong in China, which is a famous "enlightenment book" and regarded as the supreme enlightenment classic. He unified the specification of English terms in his book and owns the copyright. Since then, Mahjong has its own official English name "Mah-jongg". This book is very popular in the city of treaty port. From 1920 to 1924, twelve editions were printed, and they were also printed and sold in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Almost from then on, China began to export a large number of mahjong tiles to European and American countries. According to the tax data of the Republic of China, 1922 September, San Francisco timber merchant Harmont imported a batch of mahjong tiles with a total value of $50,000 from Shanghai and set up a special mahjong sales company. This is the beginning of the first large-scale entry of mahjong tiles into the American market.
In order to promote mahjong, Harmont's company also offered free courses.
Mahjong tiles in America are in short supply. 1922130,000 mahjong imported from the United States was snapped up, and the price was as high as $500. In that year, the sales volume soared to 6.5438+0.5 million pairs. 1923, the annual street meeting of new york Park Avenue, and it is planned to invite China 12 people to demonstrate playing mahjong. As a result, the mahjong tiles used for display were forcibly bought by spectators the day after the street meeting.
At that time, a report of the U.S. Department of Commerce even pointed out that a large number of bones were being exported to China from Chicago and Kansas City. People in China used this raw material to make mahjong tiles and then sold them back to the United States to meet the demand for high-quality handmade mahjong tiles in the American market. In order to make it more convenient for westerners to play, many mahjong exported at that time were marked with Arabic numerals on strips, cakes and wands.
By the end of 1923, about150,000 Americans were playing mahjong. According to newspapers and magazines, in 1923, a mahjong advertisement was published in The New York Times, USA, saying that a church had opened a mahjong class and was enrolling students. The tuition fee was 10 USD per person. In March of the same year, Vanity Fair published a mahjong recommendation article by the author Foster, who described a mahjong storm as a typhoon, as if it were an early warning. He wrote: "The Mahjong Storm Center, which landed in the western Pacific last April, is continuing to blow to the eastern United States with its unabated wind. Earlier this year, it has been moved to some social places in Boston and Maine in the eastern United States. It is predicted that Mahjong Storm Center will continue to March into new york. At present, there are more than a dozen experts specializing in mahjong teaching in new york. Americans who don't teach mahjong privately are eagerly reading babcock's mahjong enlightenment book ... "
Mahjong has become the opium of American women.
At that time, American society was in the most brilliant and prosperous period, and more and more families began to enter modern life. It was during this period that Mahjong, a small domino similar to opium, was especially favored by American women.
At this time, men are working in more and more city companies, while women are living more and more freely. They don't have to do housework at home all day, so they spend a lot of leisure time together, and mahjong has become their best leisure activity after their husbands go to work.
Mahjong has even become a "regular therapy" for housewives to solve their husbands' worries about going to work in cities. 1924, showing the characteristics of mahjong after it entered the United States. In the photo, there are four American women in swimsuits playing mahjong on the floating platform of the swimming pool. This scene reflects the social reality, just like housewives in Desperate Housewives get together to play cards every week no matter how busy they are.
Varelli, a white woman, is called "the queen of hemp among white people" by local people. She plays mahjong for a short time nine times a week, plus two "marathon mahjong"-playing mahjong on Sunday morning until 1 1 half past one, and then playing mahjong from 1 1 in the morning until 7: 00 the next night, and playing mahjong for about 30 hours a week. As a reflection of this popularity, Eddie Conte wrote a song for a musical called "When Mom Started Playing Mahjong", and the lyrics wrote, "Since mom started playing Mahjong, the family has been really busy ..."
On the cover of Life magazine published on April 24th, 1924 depicts an old couple playing mahjong in China. The title is homophonic: "Paand Ma Jongg", and two cards are thrown at the bottom, one east and one west, which seems to imply that the east wind has spread to the west and mahjong is popular on both sides.
Of course, the ubiquitous overseas students from China are pioneers in bringing Mahjong to the United States and even the world. "They met at the end of the world and hit it off. As soon as they talked about the motherland that was invaded by foreign countries and civil strife, they couldn't wait to go back to serve at once. But the boat was moving so slowly that everyone was homesick and worried that there was nowhere to go. I don't know where two sets of mahjong tiles suddenly came. Mahjong, of course, is a national sport. I heard it is also very popular in America. Playing cards has both hometown flavor and world trend. " This is the scene written by Qian Zhongshu at the beginning of Fortress Besieged, which was really common at that time.
There is a mahjong museum in Japan.
Although mahjong is the quintessence of China, and it is also brought to every corner of the world by students studying in China, it is Japan and European and American countries, especially Japan, that have done better in effectively promoting culture.
An American student went to Japan to study mahjong culture with an American scholarship, and was received by Hillary before leaving. In 2007, the first World Mahjong Championship was held in Chengdu. At that time, his research in Japan was coming to an end. Before returning home, he planned to visit China, the birthplace of mahjong. At that time, the author asked him why he went to Japan to study China. He said, "Japan has the largest mahjong museum in the world, which collects cultural relics and materials about mahjong from various countries."
Japan has built a mahjong museum, and other countries have also organized various mahjong associations. Louis Mado, president of American Mahjong Association, said: "1999, we established American Mahjong Association to promote this ancient game." They also held the first North American Mahjong Champions League, which attracted more than 200 players.
Mado believes that holding these competitions not only provides opportunities for mahjong lovers to get together, but also enables them to make new friends. Matt Berg, a contestant from Texas, said: "I have been playing online mahjong. I am very excited about this competition. It is very different to compete with real players. I am looking forward to participating in the international mahjong competition. "
Holland is the bridgehead of mahjong in Europe. The game landed here and then spread all over Europe. In 2005, Dutch mahjong lovers established the "Dutch Mahjong Association". Subsequently, mahjong associations in European countries appeared one after another. In the same year, seven mahjong associations including Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands initiated the establishment of the European Mahjong Association in Denmark. According to the World Mahjong Organization, "Up to now, mahjong associations in Europe 14 countries have become members of the European Mahjong Association."
Nowadays, not only many countries have their own leagues, but also mahjong has European Championships and World Championships. Graeme said that his love for mahjong was "till death do us part". Although he failed to participate in the competition, he worked tirelessly to develop his card friends and strive to form a strong team to participate in the World Championships in the Netherlands and Austria.
Playing mahjong to prevent Alzheimer's Harmo's disease
People fall in love with mahjong for different reasons, and some even learn to play mahjong for health.
"I used to know that China people can make food in various ways, but I didn't expect to play these square' small bricks' so beautifully." Charles Goldstein, a 56-year-old American, is the sales manager of a real estate agency in Auckland. Once, the old lady Katie, a neighbor, invited him to be a guest. From then on, he knew the novelty of mahjong.
Katie's family are immigrants from Hong Kong. Seeing that Charles was curious about mahjong, they began to teach him to play Cantonese mahjong. "I used to like playing the piano and violin, but recently I fell madly in love with mahjong. China people are really smart. This game is very complicated to learn and interesting to play. You never know what card God will give you next. A friend in China told me that playing mahjong can make the brain active, and it is said that it can also prevent Alzheimer's disease. " Originally, Charles only went to his neighbor's house to play mahjong on weekends, but in order to "prevent Alzheimer's disease", he began to look for card friends online. He joined a group called "Super Mahjong" on facebook, which has more than 1 10,000 members. Everyone exchanges experiences and "makes appointments" online.
They think they can learn a lot of culture with China characteristics at the poker table. But the strange thing is, "Why doesn't China try to make mahjong an Olympic event?"
(Originally published in the Expo, part of the information comes from reading history, Huaxi Dushi Bao and Chongqing Evening News)
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