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| SUNRAYS MARCH 2014
ONLINE:
SCTXCA.ORG
growing audience here among those who
enjoy a game of skill, strategy, calculation,
and a little bit of luck. Many, like Club
President Sharon Kyslowsky, have played
the game for decades. Sharon is passionate
enough about the game to travel to Las Ve-
gas to play with 400 people from across the
country, and she has even participated in
cruises that offered Mah Jongg as a focus.
Once, she was hired by a city in California
to teach the game to seniors, on the theory
that it is a good exercise for the brain. She
also oftenwearsminiature tiles as earrings
and on her bracelet.
Sharon loves teaching the game, and al-
though it may seem complicated on first
glance to outsiders, she says only twice in
20 years has she been unable to teach it
to someone. A new player can usually be
comfortable playing after five or six weeks.
One of her goals as president of the club
is to increase club membership in general
and the membership of men, in particular.
Although there are typically 75-100 mem-
bers in the chartered club, Sharon esti-
mates there may be as many as 300-400
players in Sun City Texas, most playing
in neighborhood groups.
Club dues are $12 a year, which funds
three tournament/lunches a year, in April,
October and December.
The club meets in the Activities Center
three times a week, on Wednesday and
Saturday at 12:30 p.m., and Thursday at
6:30 p.m. Residents interested in joining
or learning the game should contact Sha-
ron at skyslowsky @suddenlink.net. For
more information, see page 107 or visit
> Site Index >Mah Jongg.
F
lowers. Dragons. Winds. If you know
what these things have in common,
you are probably a Mah Jongg
player. Each of these, and others called
dots, craks, bams and jokers, are Chinese
designs engraved on tiles that are used
by players—typically four at a table—to
establish a prescribed sequence or “hand”
to win the game. At a recent meeting of
the Sun City Texas Mah Jongg Club, 12
women gathered in the Activities Center to
play, the only sounds being the click of tiles
being drawn or discarded, the announce-
ments of the discard tiles, and the sighs
of frustration with the luck of the draw.
Originated in China as a game of emper-
ors and later banned for 36 years as a
symbol of “capitalist corruption,” the game
was imported into the United States in
the 1920s. Mah Jongg has since found a
Mah Jongg:
Played by Emperors, Banned by China, Popular in Sun City!
By Sandy Nielsen
PHOTO BY MAGGI JONES
