How a mahjong club is redefining New York City social life

On a Tuesday afternoon in June, dozens of mahjong tables sat in the garden of The Standard hotel in New York City's East Village, the sun shining through the trees on the green tablecloths. Joanne Xu, one of the four founders of Green Tile Social Club, placed 144 mahjong tiles into four rows on each table, waiting for more than 100 players to start their night.

Green Tile Social Club is one of the largest mahjong clubs in New York City and a driving force behind one of the newest nightlife trends. Shaking off the stereotype of playing in your grandparents' basement, Green Tile Social Club has attracted mainly young people who wear Y2K-style clothing, sip on mocktails, and listen to live EDM in the background.

The club's four co-founders, Xu, Sarah Teng, Grace Liu and Ernest Chan, are all University of Texas at Austin grads and all Asian American. They moved to New York City after graduation and started playing mahjong at Teng's apartment together. It started out as a Sunday ritual, Teng said, but as more friends asked to join them, they saw what they say is a growing demand from young Asian Americans just like them for the game and for community.

"There was so much demand and so much interest in these young Asian and Asian American communities who were looking for the same thing that we were, but it didn't exist yet," Teng recalled of the decision to create the club in May 2022. While all four founders have full-time jobs, they organize the club as a side hustle.

The group says anywhere from 100 to 300 people attend their events, which typically cost about $25 per ticket.

Mahjong, an ancient tile-based game rooted in Chinese culture that originated in the 19th century, has woven its way into everyday social life in the United States. Many young Asian Americans grew up watching their parents and grandparents playing this game.

"Something I really love about the game in particular is that it really brings me back to a lot of memories of my childhood, especially with my grandfather, who is no longer with us. That's something really near and dear to my heart," said 25-year-old Armand Pappas, a participant at the event who grew up playing mahjong with his family in Westchester, New York.

When four people sit down at the table, a small community is automatically constructed. And when it expands to 5, 12, or even 20 tables at the same venue, a bond is born. At one Green Tile Social Club gathering, people talked about their childhood experiences, patiently teaching each other different styles of mahjong and exchanging contact information with people they had just met. The creative and diverse events are attracting more young people who do not share the same cultural backgrounds.

Green Tile Social Club's mission is to connect with and give back to the Asian American community. In addition to the ticketed events, the group also hosts free monthly meet-ups to teach beginners how to play mahjong.

This summer, Green Tile Social Club is hosting a series of events called "Mahjong in the Garden." By setting mahjong tables in the local community gardens and green space, they say they hope to reconnect players with nature.

"In an ecosystem like Green Tile, we have to be constantly listening to each other and understanding and hearing what it is that we're actually craving for and yearning for from our own culture and our own cultural expression at the end of the day," Xu said, noting the group has future ambitions to expand further.