To golfers and members, the Old Waverly it’s best known for its award-winning golf course and Old South charm. But if you were to venture into the grand clubhouse on a Monday morning, you would hear the hypnotic clinking of tiles and soft voices saying phrases like “3 Bam,” “Red Dragon” and “6 Dot.”
After a while, someone calls “Mahjong!” and the winner picks up her tray, turning it around for the others at her table to see.
“Don’t forget, y’all are supposed to clap,” she lovingly teases the women.
It’s Mahjong Monday, and the women of the Old Waverly Winds have gathered. Someone is wearing mahjong earrings and a cloisonné bracelet with a beaded mahjong tile. Another person is sipping from a mahjong cup. On each table is a curated mahjong set, each selected for its design and beauty – or sometimes for the holidays or weather.
“I love them all,” said Charlotte Magnussen, a member of Old Waverly Winds and owner of several mahjong sets. “It’s like your children, you can’t pick one because you’re playing with a set and you think ‘Oh this is so pretty, I love it to death,’ and then you put it away and get another and think the same thing.”
Charlotte nods to the mahjong set in front of her. On the mat, Chinese dragons curl around botanical designs. The pastel tiles are covered with spring florals, birds and Chinese characters.
“It’s spring, so this is my spring set.”
Oh My Mahjong, a company selling colorful, design-forward sets, calls it a “tilescape.” And tilescape it is. One player has perfectly matched her entire setup to the Scottish Highland-esque interior of the Old Waverly clubhouse – with tortoiseshell trays and tiles, matching shuffling cards and a deep green plaid mat.
While the “card-table couture,” as Vanity Fair referred to it, is relatively new, mahjong itself is much, much older – originating in China sometime in the 1800s. It made its way to America in the 1920s after a businessman brought it back home with him. From there, it slowly gained popularity, particularly with Jewish women. They played with a different set of rules and created their own version and their own league: American mahjong. The ladies at Old Waverly play according to the rules of the National Mah Jongg League, established in 1937.
“We all play American,” said Frances Smith, mahjong instructor and organizer of the Old Waverly Winds. “And sometimes we play two hours, sometimes we play four. We’ll sit here ’til 2 o’clock, not even realizing time is going by.”
The rhythm of the game
There are 144 tiles. The women swap pieces from the left to the right and across the table – so dance-like that it’s referred to as the “Charleston” in American mahjong. The rhythm they get into is so relaxing that it’s easy to see how they could spend hours here.
The ritual and symbolism of the game are powerful. Dice are rolled to determine the dealer. The person sitting in the East wind position always goes first. In between each round, they pause and “wash” the tiles, a traditional shuffling method where players turn the pieces facedown and swirl the tiles together, with each person touching them for good luck. The ladies said this is referred to as “the twittering of the sparrows,” named for the sound of the tiles and the chit-chat between players. It’s the perfect moment to have a little bit of conversation.
And the conversation is what several of them come for. Sandra Harpole, an Old Waverly Winds member, started playing after losing her husband, Martin. She credits mahjong with giving her the social support she needed at the time.
“I’ve known all these ladies forever,” she said. “But I didn’t really have the opportunity to be with them as much as we have now.”
And there have been other unexpected benefits as well.
“I used to play with a woman who had joined for social reasons,” Frances recalled. “She was struggling with dementia, and it was hard for her to play (at first), but after two years of playing she’s now winning, and she understands the game and plays very well. I’ve seen it firsthand. Memories of people come back. It challenges your brain, and it makes a difference.”
Frances herself just began playing two years ago, and she agrees that there’s been a large uptick in popularity. Between 2023 and 2024, Eventbrite – an online event platform – reported a 179% increase in mahjong events nationwide. The Old Waverly Winds have taken off as a group, and so has the group Frances guides at the Louise Campbell Arts Center on the third Thursday of each month.
Playing for a purpose
The fun and joy of the game are carrying over into their philanthropy work. Today, Frances and several members of the Old Waverly Winds will be competing in “Mahjong March Madness,” a mahjong tournament and fundraiser Frances created to support The Mission, a men’s rehabilitation program located in West Point, where she is an ambassador and “unofficial events coordinator.”
Frances began working with The Mission around the same time she started playing mahjong. She had just retired and moved back to West Point, and as a former professional organizer, she realized her skills could be put to good use. She reached out to The Mission to volunteer her services, and it wasn’t long before they gave her an office in the building.
This is the second year they’ve hosted the tournament, and she hopes this year will be an even larger success. They’ve added a social play option and increased chances to win a variety of mahjong-centric raffle prizes, and this year the grand prize is a new set of the highly coveted Oh My Mahjong tiles.
“The Mission helps so many people in this area, really all over Mississippi,” Frances said. “(The organization) helps them heal, find a job and rejoin the community. We teach anger management, we help with GEDs – it’s a lot of counseling. We want these men to know they do matter and their opinions matter, their mindsets can change and that they can be OK again.”
The Mission’s recovery program spans 12 months, and they are able to house 48 men at one time. They rely solely on donations, grants and fundraisers to support their work.
Mahjong players will travel far and wide to join Mahjong March Madness, with some coming from Biloxi, Oxford and Memphis. Frances said everyone will be decked out in their mahjong-themed gear, and they’re excited to play with women outside their circle.
A Seat at the table
An outsider watching experienced players might feel like it’s impossible to join the table and keep up – but Frances insists this is not the case. For those wanting to break into the scene, she is creating a new group – the Golden Tile Club – where players new and old can join. To ensure everyone in the club feels confident playing, membership comes with three lessons.
According to Frances, you just need “skill, strategy and luck” – and maybe some practice. And there’s an equalizer: the National Mah Jongg League changes the card that determines the winning hand each year. The Golden Tile Club will be publicly announced soon, and the group will start meeting in mid-April, once the new playing card comes out.
“We all have to relearn the rules beginning in April of each year,” Frances said. “Join us and learn the whole new hand with us.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
