Mahjong

A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture

De: Annelise Heinz

Narrado por: Rachel Botchan

How has a game brought together Americans and defined separate ethnic communities? This book tells the first history of mahjong and its meaning in American culture.  

Click-click-click. The sound of mahjong tiles connects American expatriates in Shanghai, Jazz Age White Americans, urban Chinese Americans in the 1930s, incarcerated Japanese Americans in wartime, Jewish American suburban mothers, and Air Force officers' wives in the postwar era.  

Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture illustrates how the spaces between tiles and the moments between games have fostered distinct social cultures in the United States. This mass-produced game crossed the Pacific, creating waves of popularity over the 20th century. Annelise Heinz narrates the history of this game to show how it has created a variety of meanings, among them American modernity, Chinese American heritage, and Jewish American women's culture. As it traveled from China to the United States and caught on with Hollywood starlets, high society, middle-class housewives, and immigrants alike, mahjong became a quintessentially American game. Heinz also reveals the ways in which women leveraged a game to gain access to respectable leisure. The result was the forging of friendships within ethnic groups that lasted decades and the creation of organizations that raised funds for the war effort and philanthropy. No other game has signified both belonging and standing apart in American culture. Drawing on photographs, advertising, popular media, and dozens of oral histories, Heinz's rich and colorful account offers the first history of the wildly popular game of mahjong.

©2021 Annelise Heinz (P)2021 Recorded Books, Inc.

The depth of the mahjong tiles run deeper in history.

Didn't know there was such a rich history in the game of mahjong. It's not just a game, it's deep rooted activity that has taken years to build in legacy. From the gamble to it sentimental meaning.

It’s a history not a how to play the game

My bad, I was hoping it was a how to play mahjong when it is the history of mahjong and clearly marked as such … I messed up

Robotic

perfect book to help you sleep....some good history,but not what I was expecting. blah blah