4 ladies sit at a desk stacked with mahjong tiles and racks, trying over a information booklet.
On a Thursday night time within the again room of a dessert store within the Backyard Oaks/Oak Forest neighborhood, 16 ladies, all from totally different walks of life, sip wine and nibble on sweets whereas leaning over mounds of brightly coloured sport tiles, organized by go well with into separate piles. Then, the lesson begins.
A hush falls over the room because the founding members of Mocha Mahj—Ashley Bailey, Veronica Gordon Murphy, and Megan “Dani” Craigman—dive into the fundamentals of American mahjong, explaining tile fits and the foundations of the sport. Their objective? To make a centuries-old sport enjoyable, approachable, and judgment-free.
Left to proper: Veronica Gordon Murphy, Ashley Bailey, and Megan “Dani” Craigman are the faces behind Mocha Mahj.
Sparked by Bailey’s curiosity, she and her associates started taking part in American mahjong earlier this 12 months. “I’ve been seeing it with quite a lot of my highschool associates and faculty associates,” Bailey explains. She initially joined an area Fb group and realized tips on how to play from a gaggle of lecturers, who later invited her associates over for a personal lesson. After a couple of rounds, Bailey, Murphy, and Craigman had been hooked. They shaped Mocha Mahj shortly after, hoping to show others in the neighborhood tips on how to play and convey some illustration into the combo. “We began taking part in and thought that lots of people we knew would love to play it,” Bailey says. “Individuals who appear to be us.”
The trio christened themselves as Mocha Mahj, a “catchy and enjoyable” nickname that additionally displays who they’re as Black ladies. “Therefore, the ‘mocha,’” Bailey chuckles. Mocha Mahj acknowledges that they aren’t precisely effectively represented within the sport area. Conventional mahjong, on one hand, is a significant tenet of the Asian neighborhood. American mahjong, then again, they clarify, was popularized primarily by New York Metropolis’s Jewish neighborhood. In Houston, American mahjong lecturers haven’t but diversified.
“We simply thought there must be choices of lecturers who aren’t white,” Craigman mentioned.
The Mocha Mahj members speak amongst themselves earlier than a lesson begins.
Now, American mahjong is having a second. In line with Google Tendencies, curiosity has surged nationwide and in Houston suburbs akin to Bellaire, Spring Valley Village, and West College Place. Axios Houston reported that on-line searches for “mahjong occasions” elevated by 867 p.c between 2023 and 2024. Even celebrities like former actress and Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, in addition to At present hosts Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager, have been noticed taking part in. Domestically, teams like Mocha Mahj are main the cost, educating members of the neighborhood a sport that’s storied however trending prefer it’s brand-new.
In some ways, Mocha Mahj displays a broader cultural wave: The sport, which originated in China within the 1800s, stays a beloved pastime throughout the Asian diaspora. World variations exist—from Taiwanese and Hong Kong variations to Vietnamese—every with differing guidelines and strategies of successful. In its conventional model, mahjong is marked by thick white-and-emerald-green tiles which can be shuffled (swirled), discarded, and matched to create successful go well with combos.
The inaugural Mocha Mahj occasion introduced in a full home.
Although an off-the-cuff sport, mahjong has an oft-controversial repute in Chinese language tradition. For a lot of, the sport is taken into account a social occasion, performed amongst relations and homemakers throughout events or all through the day. For others, it’s a leisurely exercise lengthy related to playing money owed, organized crime, and underground dens. Its complicated cultural standing, combined with its unfavourable repute, has even spawned a micro-genre of Hong Kong movies, together with gambling-centered plots like Fats Choi Spirit and the 1981 traditional, Mahjong Heroes.
Within the US, nevertheless, mahjong arrived with fewer cultural hang-ups. Within the Nineteen Twenties, American businessman Joseph Park Babcock helped popularize the sport amongst American expatriates in China via his mahjong gross sales firm, in line with Time journal. He later launched a simplified model within the States. By the Thirties, the sport caught on with the Jewish neighborhood, thanks partially to a girl named Dorothy Meyerson, who, together with different members, helped standardize the foundations and create one other simplified model. In 1937, she shaped the Nationwide Mah Jongg League in New York Metropolis, and “American mahjong” rapidly unfold all through New York’s elite and throughout the Jewish neighborhood.
Dani Craigman arranges tiles as she units up for Mocha Mahj’s first occasion.
The recognition of American mahjong continued to develop, finally reaching mainstream standing in America throughout the previous decade. The sport’s newest revival obtained a lift in 2018, when the blockbuster film Loopy Wealthy Asians hit theaters. Towards the movie’s finish (spoiler alert), protagonist Rachel Chu, performed by actress Constance Wu, begins a spherical of mahjong along with her boyfriend’s disapproving mom, Eleanor Sung-Younger, performed by the long-lasting Michelle Yeoh. Within the penultimate scene, Rachel sacrifices her successful tile to permit Eleanor’s victory—a metaphor for Rachel’s relationship with Eleanor’s son, Nick. “The film… perpetuated it, and it simply type of grew to become a factor,” says Bailey Fritcher, who attended her first mahjong 101 session with Mocha Mahj. Like Fritcher, many Mocha Mahj first-timers credit score the film with repopularizing the sport, explaining how youthful audiences have taken up the reins.
In Houston, mahjong has develop into a preferred exercise, with institutions such because the YMCA, the Jewish Federation of Higher Houston, and the Chinese language Neighborhood Heart providing video games and tournaments. Due to social media, the sport has develop into a web based pattern as a lot as a neighborhood builder. “I’ve been seeing it lots during the last three-ish years,” Fritcher says. “Lots of people have been entering into it.”
A full go well with of mahjong tiles, which embrace all the things from jokers to dot tiles.
Mocha Mahj noticed the momentum firsthand. The trio honed their expertise after studying to play themselves in March 2025. They hosted video games at one another’s properties recurrently, but it surely wasn’t till a pal in Atlanta, Georgia, requested Mocha Mahj to host a personal lesson—their first paid gig. Nonetheless, the group will not be about revenue; it’s about creating neighborhood one lesson at a time.
Instructing mahjong in a cushty, judgment-free zone amongst associates is the first motivation, the trio explains. Their courses are designed to be unintimidating, with smaller group sizes, printed guides, and ample one-on-one time to ask questions and be taught extra completely—a far cry from the trial-by-fire educating technique most individuals expertise.
The mahjong set additionally features a pair of cube.
“After we realized, it wasn’t as pleasant or as comfy as we’d’ve appreciated,” Murphy says. “And so, what we’re making an attempt to do is hopefully to make areas the place folks really feel comfy making errors and having enjoyable.”
Because the Mocha Mahj group circles the room, gamers cease and ask questions in regards to the sport, studying via the guides. Tiles clack collectively because the novice gamers rearrange their strains, discarding undesirable tiles within the heart. Quickly sufficient, one participant emerges victorious.
“Mahjong!”
