American vs Chinese vs Phone Mahjong: What's the Difference?

You tell a friend you play mahjong. They light up. "Oh I LOVE that game, I play it on my phone every night." You smile, but inside you're thinking: that is not the same game.

And they're not wrong, exactly. There IS a mahjong on their phone. There's also a mahjong played in living rooms in Hong Kong, a mahjong played in tournament halls in Tokyo, a mahjong played in mountain cabins in Sichuan, and a mahjong played at card tables in New Jersey on Wednesday nights. They are all called mahjong. They are not the same game. This is the difference, in one place.

TL;DR: The 5 main types of mahjong

• American mahjong: 4 players, card-driven (NMJL card changes every year), Charleston pass, jokers allowed. This is the one Lara teaches.
• Chinese (traditional) mahjong: 4 players, no card, build any 14-tile winning hand, scored by point value of the hand. The oldest form.
• Hong Kong mahjong: A modern, simpler variant of Chinese. 4 players, faster scoring, no Charleston. Common in casual play across Asia.
• Riichi (Japanese) mahjong: 4 players, complex scoring, lots of strategy, used in serious tournaments. Different etiquette, different tile set additions.
• Mahjong solitaire: The phone game. Single player, tile-matching, uses mahjong tiles for decoration. Not actually mahjong as a game.

Why these games share a name

Mahjong started in China. The earliest hard evidence puts the modern game in China in the 1880s, though tile games there go back centuries before that. Origins are debated (theories range from Taiping Rebellion soldiers to a Shanghai aristocrat), but everyone agrees the game we know took shape in late-1800s China. The game spread through China, then to Japan and other parts of Asia, then to the United States in the 1920s when an American businessman brought sets back and a craze took off. Each region kept the tiles and the basic idea of building a 14-tile hand, then layered on its own rules, scoring, and table culture. The result is a family of games that all use the same beautiful tiles but play differently from each other.

So when someone says "mahjong," the right follow-up question is "which one?" The tiles look the same. The game on top of them does not.

American mahjong (the one Lara teaches)

American mahjong is what most US players mean when they say "mahjong." It's the game played at country clubs, kitchen tables, beach houses, and on cruise ships across the country. It's also the version Lara teaches, the version the Confidence Club is built around, and the one the rest of the LMJE site is mostly about.

Here's what makes it distinct:

The card. American mahjong is played from a card published every year by the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL). The card lists 55 specific hands you can build that year. You must match one of those hands exactly to win. Build a 14-tile hand that's not on the card? You don't win. The card changes every April, which means players spend the spring relearning every season. The NMJL is the official organization that publishes the card and rules.

4 players. American mahjong is played by 4 people seated at the cardinal positions (East, South, West, North). 3-handed play exists for when you can't get a fourth, but the game is built for 4.

The Charleston. Before the first turn, there's a tile-passing phase called the Charleston. Three required passes (right, across, left), three optional passes in reverse, and a possible Courtesy Pass with your partner. The Charleston is unique to American mahjong. No other variant has it. We have a full Charleston guide if you want the deep dive.

Jokers. The American game has 8 joker tiles in the set. Jokers can substitute for almost any tile in most groupings (pungs, kongs, quints, sextets), but they cannot be used in pairs or singles. The joker rules are their own learning curve.

The tile set. 152 tiles total: 36 Bams, 36 Craks, 36 Dots, 16 Winds, 12 Dragons, 8 Flowers, 8 Jokers. The Flowers and Jokers are an American addition; traditional Chinese sets don't include jokers.

Scoring. Each hand has a point value listed on the card. Win the hand, collect its point value from each opponent. Self-pick (drawing your winning tile yourself) doubles the payout.

If you want the absolute starting point for American mahjong, the Start Here page walks through everything from tile names to the first game.

Chinese (traditional) mahjong

Chinese mahjong is the oldest form of the game and the parent of every other version. It's still played widely across mainland China and in Chinese communities around the world.

Here's what's different from the American game:

No card. This is the biggest difference. There's no list of 55 specific hands. The winning condition is structural: build any 14-tile hand made up of 4 sets (each a pung of 3, kong of 4, or chow of 3 consecutive tiles in one suit) plus 1 pair. As long as the structure works, the hand wins. There are restrictions and scoring multipliers based on the type of sets, but the freedom to build is much wider than in American mahjong.

Chows. In Chinese mahjong you can build chows, which are runs of three consecutive numbered tiles in the same suit (1-2-3 Dots, for example). American mahjong does not use chows at all. This single difference changes the entire strategy of the game.

No Charleston. Chinese mahjong has no tile-passing phase. You're dealt your tiles, you arrange them, and play begins.

No jokers. The traditional Chinese set doesn't include jokers. You play what you draw, with no substitutions.

Scoring is point-based. Different hand structures have different point values, often with multipliers for special combinations. Scoring varies by region and by table agreement, which is one reason "Chinese mahjong" is really an umbrella term for several closely related styles.

If you sit down at a Chinese mahjong table with only American mahjong training, you'll be lost in 30 seconds. The tiles are familiar. Almost nothing else is.

Hong Kong mahjong

Hong Kong mahjong is a streamlined modern variant of Chinese mahjong, widely played across Hong Kong and southern China. It's probably the most common form of "Chinese-style" mahjong you'd encounter at a casual table outside the US.

What's distinct about it:

• 4 players, no card, build any structurally valid 14-tile hand (same base structure as traditional Chinese).
• Faster scoring than mainland traditional play. Hong Kong uses a "faan" system where hands are scored by how many faan (points) they earn, with a minimum required to declare a win.
• Uses chows. Uses pungs. Uses kongs. The same structural sets as traditional Chinese mahjong.
• No Charleston.
• No jokers in the standard set, though some friendly tables add house rules.

If you've ever watched a movie set in Hong Kong with a mahjong scene (and there are a lot of them), this is the version on the table.

Riichi (Japanese) mahjong

Riichi is the version played in Japan and the most common mahjong variant in international competitive tournaments. It is, by reputation and by design, the strategically deepest version of the game.

What makes it different:

The riichi declaration. When your hand is one tile away from winning (called "tenpai"), you can declare "riichi" by placing a 1000-point bet. This locks your hand (you can't change it) but unlocks scoring bonuses if you win. The risk-reward of riichi is at the heart of the strategy.

Dora tiles. Specific tiles are designated as "dora" each hand, and holding them in your winning hand multiplies your score. This adds another layer of decision-making about what tiles to chase.

Strict scoring. Riichi scoring is precise, codified, and unforgiving. There are minimum hand requirements (your hand must have at least one "yaku," a scoring pattern, to win). Without a yaku, your hand is dead even if it's structurally complete.

4 players, no card, no Charleston. Same general structure as Chinese mahjong but with the riichi mechanics layered on top.

Different tile set additions. Riichi uses "red five" tiles (one red tile per suit that counts as bonus dora) and may or may not include flower tiles depending on the rule set.

Riichi has a serious global player community, online platforms with millions of users, and professional tournaments. It is to mahjong what tournament chess is to casual chess.

Mahjong solitaire (the phone game)

Now the one most people have actually played: mahjong solitaire, the game on the app store.

This is the conversation that happens at every dinner party where mahjong comes up. Someone says they play mahjong on their phone. They mean this. It is not the same game your grandmother played at her Tuesday club.

Here's what mahjong solitaire actually is:

• Single player. You vs. the board. No opponents.
• Tile-matching, not hand-building. The tiles are stacked in a pyramid or pattern. You match pairs of identical tiles to remove them. Clear the board to win.
• No Charleston, no card, no rounds, no scoring against other players. No social game at all.
• Uses mahjong tiles for decoration. That's the entire mahjong connection. The tiles are the only thing borrowed from the actual game.

Mahjong solitaire was invented in 1981 for early personal computers. It's a tile-matching puzzle game. Calling it mahjong is like calling Scrabble "chess" because both use a board. It is its own thing, and it's a fine thing, but it does not prepare you in any way for sitting down at a real mahjong table.

So when your friend says they love mahjong because of the app, what they actually love is a puzzle game that uses pretty tiles. The four-person, card-driven, strategic, social game we play is something else entirely. The good news: anyone who already finds the tiles beautiful is most of the way to enjoying the real game.

Quick comparison table

Which one should you learn?

If you're in the US and you want to play with other people, the answer is almost always American mahjong.

Here's why:

It's the version your neighbors play. Every mahjong club, every retirement community group, every "ladies who lunch and play mahjong" table in the US is playing American mahjong. If you want to walk into a game in your town, this is the one to know. Chinese, Hong Kong, and Riichi communities exist in the US but they are smaller and more concentrated.

The card gives you a roadmap. One of the things that makes Chinese mahjong so hard to learn is the lack of structure. "Build any 14-tile hand that fits the rules" sounds simple until you sit down and realize the rules are doing a lot of work. The NMJL card gives American players 55 specific targets to aim at. That's a more learnable starting point.

The Charleston is fun. Yes, it's also where most beginners struggle. But once you get the hang of it, the Charleston is the most strategic and social part of the game. It rewards observation, partnership, and patience in a way no other version does.

The exception: if you grew up in a household that played Chinese, Hong Kong, or Riichi mahjong, learn that version. The skills transfer poorly between variants, so the version your family plays is the version you should know.

If you want to start American mahjong from scratch and you've been nodding along to this, the Start Here page is the front door. And if you want to get past the rules and into the part where the card actually starts to make sense, the Confidence Club is where I do that every month.

The takeaway

The next time someone tells you they love mahjong because of the app, you don't have to roll your eyes. You can just ask: "American, Chinese, or solitaire?" Now you know which conversation you're actually having.

If they say solitaire, you've just earned the chance to tell them about the real game. Most people who love mahjong tiles end up loving real mahjong even more once they sit down at an actual table.

If they say American, swap card-season stories. They've probably been swimming in the 2026 card for a few weeks too.

If they say Chinese, Hong Kong, or Riichi, pull up a chair. You're about to learn something.

And if YOU want to learn American mahjong from scratch (with the card, the Charleston, the jokers, and the whole strategic layer that the phone game leaves out), the Start Here page walks you through it. If you want a one-page summary you can take to your next game, grab the free cheat sheet. And if any term in this post needs a quick lookup, the mahjong glossary has every definition in one place.

See you at the table. The real one.

Lara