8 Lessons of Mahjong from Crazy Rich Asians
I wouldn’t read this if you haven’t seen the movie. SPOILERS AHEAD, but also go watch the movie. Or read the book.
I had a “wow that’s me!” moment. And then I realized that’s never happened to me before while watching a movie.
I almost cried at the theater because I didn’t know what it felt like to relate to a movie character until watching Crazy Rich Asians.
Similarly, I never understood why we overanalyzed symbolism and imagery in our English literature classes until I watched the Mahjong scene in Crazy Rich Asians. Today, I’m here to overanalyze the shit out of a movie scene, because if you never played Mahjong, you missed out on some good stuff.
And I swear I haven’t seen the Sparknotes yet.
Before I begin, I want to highlight three motifs that cycle through the entire story of Crazy Rich Asians, and permeate the clash between its characters. Namely, they are
1. Disparity in cultural values from different upbringings.
2. Maintaining harmony vs confronting the truth
3. Reinventing yourself in a place you don’t belong
Every conversation and relationship in the movie could be reduced to these ideas. Nick, in bringing Rachel into his crazy family life and politics. The different ways that the mothers treat their children (and in-laws!). Astrid’s marital situation. But, as the movie draws to the end, Rachel and Eleanor’s game of Mahjong exemplify all these conflicts in an interaction trenched in symbolism, in the most Chinese — not Asian, since it definitely does not represent all of Asia — way possible. Hence, I’ll count these as the first three lessons.
Rachel is 100% right, Mahjong teaches you valuable lessons. Here are some more:
4. Mahjong transcends social boundaries.
“Don’t worry about [these two ladies], they’re half-deaf and they only speak Hokkien.” — Rachel, to Mrs. Young
The conflict around the movie centers around a clash in values, origin, and socio-economic class, yet everyone sits at the same Mahjong table. So long as you know the rules to the game, you don’t even need to speak the same language.
5. Mahjong reminds you of family and home.
“My mom taught me how to play. She told me mahjong would teach me important life skills: Negotiation. Strategy. Cooperation.” — Rachel
“My mother taught me too.” — Eleanor
And my mother taught me Mahjong as well. The sound of Mahjong tiles clinking together when you shuffle them will certainly invoke memories of drinking with friends, visiting grandparents, or long nights of studying while your family friends banter in the living room. And Mahjong tables are large and clunky, so you KNOW you’re settled when you have one in the house.
6. Mahjong is deep in symbolism
If it seems like I’m reading too much into this it’s because I totally am. My point still stands.
In this scene, Eleanor Young rolls the dice to start the game, which most likely means she’s sitting on the East Wind.
Rachel Chu sits on the West Wind, opposite of Eleanor. East vs. West, a classic battle no doubt. Clash of cultures, like we said before.
Not only that, but there’s also the general concept of “做/坐东”, which literally translates as “to be/sit at the East”, but contextually means to be the host.
Usually, this is at a restaurant or family dinner, and the host usually sits in the chair facing the door as to greet his or her guests. However, Rachel sits on the West Wind, letting Eleanor sit East, yet Rachel is the one in control of the situation.
The funny thing is that the characters for “do” (做) and “sit” (坐) sound pretty similar, so I’m actually not sure which one is correct. Please let me know, this is bothering me.
7. Mahjong puts you in control, if you pay attention.
If you look closely at the Mahjong hands, you can probably see that Rachel’s hand is pretty stacked with all the bamboo tiles. When she draws the winning tile (and also with where she’s going with the conversation), one might guess that Rachel’s pretty close to winning.
“I just want you to know: that one day — when he marries another lucky girl who is enough for you, and you’re playing with your grandkids while the Tan Hua’s are blooming, and the birds are chirping — that it was because of me: a poor, raised by a single mother, low class, immigrant nobody.” — Rachel, to Mrs. Young
Eleanor reveals all her tiles to claim the winning piece and rightful victory, as per the game rules. After a game ends, it’s typical for others to reveal their hands as well to show how close they were to winning, and relish in the possibilities. Rachel reveals that, with the tile she discarded, she also would have won. Thus, Rachel lets Mrs. Young “win” both the Mahjong game and her son in this situation. Besides, with all the good acting in the scene, you don’t really need to know the rules of Mahjong to get this point.
And the rest is cinematic history.
8. Mahjong pays homage to our roots and history.
The importance of this scene has in the movie, I would argue, is also a nod to the Joy Luck Club, the previous movie with an all Asian American cast. Joy Luck Club (also a great book!) centers around the stories of four Chinese American immigrants whose mothers meet regularly to play Mahjong. So, go figure.
And, generally, the knowledge of Mahjong is passed down from generation to generation. It’s so old that the rules change based on where you play. In my house, you can’t just have random triplet pairings; at the very least, triplets from the standard bamboo/circle/number suits have to be the same suit in your hand. Otherwise, both my parents are giving you dirty looks and/or kicking you out of the game. 😊
In conclusion, Mahjong is important, as is family, heritage, and cultural awareness. Now, I hope you understand better why we talk about Crazy Rich Asians so much. You don’t have to be crazy, rich, or Asian to appreciate its significance, in Hollywood and beyond.
UPDATE: Shortly after I published, one of my friends linked me this post by Jeff Yang, the father of the child actor for Eddie Huang in the TV adaptation of Fresh Off the Boat, which is also an excellent read and no doubt a better analysis than I could have gleaned on my own. So go give him some love.
