Tuesday, February 10th at 4pm EST

This event offers a chance to hear from The Mahjong Project’s history keeper, Nicole Wong about her efforts to preserve mahjong’s rules, etiquette, and personal anecdotes for generations. Her beautiful website and companion book,  Mahjong: House Rules from Across the Asian Diaspora illustrates how the game bridges families across continents and creates a living archive of tradition. 

Nicole started The Mahjong Project in 2019—part instructional guide, part oral history project, to document her family’s house rules and place them in the broader history and diaspora of the game itself. She has been featured in The Washington Post, The Associated Press, NPR, Axios, Vogue and more.

We’ll be in conversation about the project’s fascinating findings, sparking conversation about the rituals, homemade rules, and strategies that shape our communal identity. You’ll also have the opportunity to share your own experiences or questions about how games become cultural touchstones and imagine new ways to keep these stories alive.

We’ll open the floor and chat for an interactive discussion where you can ask questions, reflect on personal mahjong memories, and explore how these narratives can inform teaching, research, or community projects. 

Who should come? Anyone curious about cultural heritage, oral history, or community storytelling. Students and scholars interested in anthropology, sociology, Asian studies, or game theory will find it especially enriching, as will faculty and staff seeking interdisciplinary inspiration for their work.

Video recording of session forthcoming

Looking for a local/UWS mahjong group? Check out the West Side Rag’s coverage of the local scene, “From Shuls to Weed Shops, Mahjong Is Clicking On the Upper West Side.”