Mahjong : an International Manual 麻将国际说明书
by Mahjong Friends
12 x 20 cm, Risoprint
56 pages + 1 poster + 1 Cheating paper
ISBN : 978-626-97804-0-2
English
Second edition of 588
September 2023
Mahjong is a board game that encapsulates the rich history and cultural traditions of East Asia. Due to the cultural and geographical isolation in the process of Mahjong’s transmission, different countries and regions have their own diverse mahjong rules (e.g. the rules in Taiwan, Hong Kong, various regions of China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore etc.), but because all the different rules are relatively easy to interchange, people who know Mahjong - though having different language, cultural and ideological backgrounds - could sit down and play mahjong together: in this case those conflicts, nationalities, political positions, problems, ideologies, struggles - found a common ground. Mahjong thus becomes the situation/place where people meet, communicate, exchange, and make friends.
In the wish to further extend and promote this precious situation, we decided to form a collective „Mahjong Friends“ and started the project with people from different regions. We hope to use mahjong as a means to help more people understand the intricate history and delicate, tense current political situation in East Asia, as the game itself is full of political metaphors. As the first publication of Mahjong Friends, Mahjong: an International Manual introduced the basic Mahjong rules as well as the culture/stories behind the patterns of Mahjong tiles through witty descriptions and vivid illustrations, accomplished with a poster full of Mahjong archive & history, as well as a piece of tiny Mahjong cheating paper, this *very cool and deep* Mahjong Manual book aims to bring peace to the world.*The first edition of this book is realized in the occasion of coloramaworkshop Self-publishing summer school stipend.
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麻将是一个体现东亚丰富历史和文化传统的棋盘游戏。由于在麻将传播过程中的文化和地理隔离，不同国家和地区有各自不同的麻将规则（例如台湾、香港、中国各地区、日本、韩国、马来西亚和新加坡等），但由于所有不同规则都相对容易互换，了解麻将的人，尽管有不同的语言、文化和意识形态背景，仍可以坐下来一起玩麻将：在这种情况下，这些冲突、国籍、政治立场、问题、意识形态、斗争——找到了一个共同点。麻将因此成为人们相聚、交流、交流和交友的场所。
为了进一步扩大和推广这种宝贵的经验，我们决定组建一个名为“麻将之友”的集体，并与来自不同地区的人一起启动该项目。我们希望利用麻将作为一种手段，帮助更多人了解东亚错综复杂的历史和微妙紧张的当前政治局势，因为游戏本身充满了政治隐喻。作为“麻将之友”的首次出版物，《麻将：国际手册》通过机智的描述和生动的插图介绍了基本的麻将规则，以及麻将牌面背后的文化和故事，附带一张充满麻将档案和历史的海报，以及一张微小的麻将作弊纸，这本非常酷且深刻的麻将手册书旨在为世界带来和平。
Sponsored & printed in COLORAMA, Berlin, May 2023
