For Tiffany Leong, mahjong started long before she knew how to play. Growing up, Hong Kong-style mahjong was part of family life. Her mother played with friends, and her grandmother regularly went to friends’ homes to play or invited them to hers.
Tiffany didn’t seriously learn the game until nearly two years ago, when she and friends in Denver’s hospitality industry gathered at a co-working space for a potluck lunch. They watched YouTube videos, read a book, and learned together.
Then they posted about it on social media.
People wanted in.
Tiffany, who had read about a resurgence of mahjong among younger players, created an Instagram page and announced another gathering. The group grew from about eight people to 24.
“I was just so surprised that so many people wanted to come and play with us,” she says.
Honour Tile Society grew from there. Jeff Fierberg, owner of Dry Clean Only events and Hot Shot Coffee, offered the group space to meet, while Tiffany kept the gatherings casual and free.
Food became part of the experience, too. Tiffany and her partner, Cody, are chefs and had already been developing a culinary concept together. The food and mahjong ventures began growing side by side.
For more than a year, Honour Tile Society has generally met once a month. Tiffany said one of the things she is proudest of is the mix of people who attend.
“One thing that I’m really proud of about Honour Tile Society is the fact that our crowd is extremely diverse and it’s intergenerational,” she says.
Some people come with friends. Others arrive alone and leave having exchanged contact information with new people they later play with outside the club.
Tiffany believes mahjong’s renewed popularity is partly about a desire for face-to-face connection after COVID and in an increasingly digital world.
“You really bypass that initial awkwardness between people,” she says.
Honour Tile Society plays Hong Kong-style mahjong, connecting Tiffany to the version she grew up around.
“We want to pay homage to personally my cultural origins, the origins of the game,” she says.
Unlike American mahjong, Hong Kong-style play does not use jokers or an annual card listing winning hands. Beginners at Honour Tile Society start with “Chicken Hand,” allowing them to learn the game before moving into points and more advanced play.
There is luck involved, but also plenty of strategy.
“You can change up your strategy at any point in the game,” Tiffany says.
Tiffany wants Honour Tile Society to grow while keeping its regular gatherings accessible. Its first teaching event at BlendCo, a woman-owned venue in downtown Denver, sold out quickly. She hopes private, corporate, and teaching events can help fund more tiles, mats, and equipment.
Those funds can also support small touches Tiffany brings from her hospitality background, including red envelopes for Chinese New Year and mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Honour Tile Society started with friends, food and a desire to learn a game Tiffany had known since childhood. Today, beginners and experienced players sit together, share food and sometimes leave with new friends.
When asked to finish the sentence, “Mahjong isn’t really about the tiles, it’s about…” Tiffany’s answer sums it up.
“Community.”