On Thursday, Sept. 25, Chinese students, along with friends of all different cultural backgrounds, gathered in the SAC where the Chinese Association at Stony Brook, or CASB, held their biannual Mahjong tournament.

Mahjong is a traditional game of Chinese origin, popularly played as a gambling game, which involves skill, strategy, and a degree of luck. The game is played by drawing a tile from your draw-pile (or wall) and discarding one from your hand, in attempt to create several different combinations (or melds), and a single pair (or head). Players can also draw from the discard pile, at the expense of having to expose the resulting meld. Melds include sets of three or four identical tiles and sequences of three tiles of the same suit.

The tournament was divided into beginner and advanced divisions, the latter of which competed for a new Mahjong set. At the end of each round, the top two players from each advanced table were regrouped into new tables for the next round.

CASB volunteers offered to teach new people the traditional Chinese game. They also offered other games, such as Jenga, chess, and checkers, to those who wanted to join the event without learning the game.

Photo by Oliver Hao Li, AA E-Zine

Stephanie Long, the president of CASB, hoped to spread awareness of Chinese culture with this traditional game, and supports a stronger community by inviting everyone, even if only to play one of the more Western games provided.

CASB will hold their next tournament in the spring, as part of their larger Chinese New Year celebration.

Photos of the event at in the AA E-Zine gallery at
http://aasquared.org/gallery/CASB2509

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2008/10/02/News/Mahjong.Tournament-3463910.shtml