上班族必備軟實力

[Richard tried to learn how to play Chinese chess, but it was hard.]

There are two board games that are played in Taiwan and have been played by Chinese people for centuries. They are Mahjong and Chinese Chess. Mahjong is usually played by 4 people and the Chinese version of chess pits two players against one another.

You can tell by the sounds when someone is playing Mahjong. Clickety clack, the shuffling noises fill the room. It is a deep and earthy sound like rocks falling onto a giant cheese grater.

 

Mahjong is usually played with hard plastic tiles that are short, thick, and stubby. They are almost square and engraved with strange markings and symbols. Some of them have a number of dots like a domino and others have Chinese characters.

In Mahjong, all the tiles are placed on a table and turned over so that the symbols are on the bottom and hidden from view. Each of the four players grab a certain number of them and stand them up so that only they can see what they have. They rearrange them so that nobody can tell how they have them situated. The first player lays one down and the others follow. Every now and then someone will grab one that someone else put down and the one who put the original one down will groan and everyone else will titter at him or her. When someone wins, there is a lot of chuckling and some money gets passed around, and then they start the whole process again, and it goes on like this all night.