American Mahjong vs Chinese Mahjong: The Differences
Nov 10, 2026 · The Editors
American mahjong vs Chinese mahjong: the tile counts, jokers, the annual card, the Charleston, how winning hands differ, and whether you can play American mahjong with a Chinese set.
American and Chinese mahjong share the same ancestor and most of the same tiles, but they are different games. Chinese mahjong lets you build any winning hand from sets and a pair; American mahjong makes you match one of a list of hands printed on a card that changes every year. If you are buying a set or joining a group, the differences matter.
The short answer
| Chinese mahjong | American mahjong | |
|---|---|---|
| Tiles | 144 (some sets 136, without flowers and seasons) | 152, including 8 jokers |
| Jokers | None | Yes, substitute in groups of three or more |
| Winning hands | Four sets plus a pair (and special hands) | Must match a hand on the current year's card |
| Card | None | Issued yearly by the National Mah Jongg League |
| Passing tiles before play | No | Yes, the Charleston |
| Runs | Yes, and a run can be claimed from the player on your left | Only where the card shows them; a discard can be claimed for a run only to finish a winning hand |
| Racks | Optional | Standard |
The tiles
A Chinese set has three suits — dots (circles), bamboo and characters — numbered 1 to 9, four of each (108 tiles); four winds, four of each (16); three dragons, four of each (12); and eight flowers and seasons. That makes 144. For what each tile means, see our mahjong tiles guide.
An American set has all of those plus eight jokers, making 152. The white dragon is often called "soap" and doubles as a zero in hands that spell out the year. Many American sets also print small numbers and letters on the tiles to help newer players.
How you win
In Chinese mahjong, a standard winning hand is four sets (three of a kind, four of a kind or a run of three in one suit) plus a pair. How a hand scores varies by regional style — Hong Kong, Taiwanese, competition rules — but the shape is flexible.
In American mahjong, the National Mah Jongg League (founded in 1937) publishes a new card every year listing that year's winning hands, grouped into categories such as year hands, like numbers, consecutive runs, and winds and dragons. You pick a hand from the card that fits your tiles and build towards it. Groups buy the new card each year.
The Charleston and jokers
Before play begins in American mahjong, players pass unwanted tiles in a set sequence — right, across, left, then optionally a second round — called the Charleston. It has no equivalent in Chinese play.
Jokers can stand in for any tile in a group of three or more of a kind, but never in a pair or a single tile. A player can swap a matching real tile for a joker that someone has exposed on the table.
Can you play American mahjong with a Chinese set?
Not as it comes: a Chinese set has no jokers, and the card relies on them. Some players mark spare or blank tiles as jokers; that works for practice but needs eight of them. A standard 144-tile set is the right choice for Chinese, Hong Kong or other Asian-style rules.
Which should you learn?
If your friends play from the yearly card, learn American. If you want a game you can teach from the tiles alone, with nothing to buy each year, learn Chinese first — our how to play mahjong guide covers the basic rules. Our travel mahjong set has the standard 144 tiles for Chinese-style play, small enough to take to a game.
