Brian Lehrer on WNYc, and now we wrap up our membership drive series about hobbies and we wrap it up with a game

Mahjong. It's a game that made its way from China to the United States along some different pathways

and we'll hear about that with my guest David Bresnick. He's the president of the U.S. professional Madjang League and a founder of the Meijang event space, Sparrow's Nest Studio in Manhattan

where you can play Meijang like your grandmother taught you or learn a new version of the game.

David, thanks for coming on.

Welcome. It's my pleasure to be here. David, thanks for coming on. Welcome.

It's my pleasure to be here.

Okay, first, pronouncer. Ma Jong or Ma Jong.

Generally speaking, Ma Jong, when the gameG was actually copyrighted, but usually Ma-G-N-G-I-N-G is how it ends up being pronounced.

And I've seen it described as a card game except with tiles, correct?

Yeah, yeah.

Fundamentally the game uses a lot of card game concepts, but instead of playing cards you're manipulating these

larger sort of tiles that are very pleasant to handle. And I see there are three

main types of Mahjong in the in the Chinese, where it started and that version came with immigrants from China or Taiwan or Hong Kong,

American, which is probably what I've seen my mother play or Japanese what's the difference

so the difference mostly has to do with rule set yeah like like the Chinese mauchang family

encompasses a lot of games all throughout Asia that you're right, came to America

with immigrants.

And then in the round 1920, a man named Babcock moved from China back to America and incorporated

American popular American card game rules and that was kind of the beginning of American

Mahjong was still wildly popular, was still, you know, very endemic within the Jewish community

and a kind of a classic game here in America. Japanese Mahjong has really arrived in Japan around 1920 as well and kind

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