Description
Register in advance to get the best experience. On the evening of the event, join the standby line for remaining seats. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis for patrons without tickets.
"The winds are blowing!" is just one way to say, "Let's play mahjong!" Delve into everything mahjong, from slang and snack guides to gameplay and hosting your own mahjong night, in Nicole Wong's Mahjong: House Rules from Across the Asian Diaspora. This new book not only provides a comprehensive overview of mahjong for beginners but also tells the intimate story of family house rules, oral traditions, and the ways mahjong thrives today in the Asian diaspora.
Join us for a discussion with Nicole Wong and NPR's Emily Kwong around mahjong, house rules, and the unique stories each of us has to tell. Mahjong will be available for purchase from the museum store. Enjoy an exclusive book signing after the talk.
Plus, enjoy mahjong gameplay and light refreshments for purchase afterwards! All levels welcome; gameplay available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Chef Tim Ma, owner of Lucky Danger, will teach and facilitate mahjong gameplay.
Jennie Mak is the founder of Mahjong United, a community project inspired by her passion for teaching and sharing stories through mahjong. She will teach and facilitate mahjong gameplay at the event.
Tea will be available for purchase from ching ching CHA. Enjoy snacks for purchase from Party Of!
About Nicole Wong
Nicole Wong is a writer and producer based in Oakland, California. She has over a decade of experience working with companies and community organizations that tell stories about the Asian American experience, such as Hyphen magazine and the Center for Asian American Media. The Mahjong Project is her effort to preserve a small piece of her family history and bring more people into the joy of playing the game while also encouraging others to contemplate unique family traditions in their own lives.
The Mahjong Project hosts pop-up mahjong nights around San Francisco and Oakland and collects stories and anecdotes about mahjong at www.themahjongproject.com (Instagram: @themahjongproject).
About Emily Kwong
Emily Kwong is the host and cocreator of Inheriting, an American and Pacific Islander family history podcast from LAist Studios. Winner of the 2025 Ambie Award for Best Society and Culture Podcast of the Year, Inheriting explores how the past is personal host. Across eight episodes, Emily helps facilitate conversations with individual families about seven different moments in AAPI history—from the Occupation of Guam to September 11, 2001. Emily is also a longtime science reporter and the host of NPR’s flagship science podcast, Short Wave. She has always been a gamer and loves tabletop games, RPGs, and video games. Emily also loses at mahjong when the Kwong family plays every holiday. Please give her tips.
About Tim Ma
Tim Ma is the founder of Tim Ma Hospitality, a DC-based restaurant group that includes Lucky Danger, a Chinese American restaurant in Chinatown with an attached mahjong parlor (there are also locations of the brand in Arlington and at Nationals Park); Any Day Now; and the forthcoming Tacocat and Sushi Sato. Ma is also a partner in Laoban, a frozen dumpling line in 8,000 grocery stores across the country. After twelve years as an electrical engineer, Ma decided to start over by getting into the family business and enrolled in culinary school at thirty years old. He worked in kitchens across New York, including Momofuku. He moved to Vienna, VA, and bought his first restaurant off Craigslist with credit cards and became Northern Virginia Magazine's No.1 restaurant. He earned a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand with his restaurants Kyirisan, American Son, and Bar Chinois and cofounded Chefs Stopping AAPI Hate, a nonprofit raising funds to support Asian communities across the country, and he was honored with the GMA Inspiration Award.
About Jennie Mak
Jennie Mak is the founder of Mahjong United, a community project born from her love of teaching and storytelling through mahjong. Raised in a mahjong-playing household in Hong Kong, she now teaches both kids and adults, using the game to connect generations and celebrate culture. Jennie sees beauty in every style—Hong Kong, American, Riichi, Filipino, Siamese—and views mahjong as a bridge between generations, cultures, and conversations. Mahjong teaches you that not every tile’s a keeper, but every choice counts.
Bank of America is the Founding Sponsor of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art “IlluminAsia” Arts and Culture Festival.
Book cover by Lizzie Allen
Cost
Free. Register in advance (recommended)
Get Tickets/Register
Accessibility & Accommodations
ASL-interpreted program
Topics
After Five, Lectures & Discussions, Shopping/Book Signing
