Photos: Chris Emeott
Players are embracing the centuries-old game for its mix of strategy, friendship and fun.
At first glance of the beautiful mah jongg titles, the sheer amount of rules and combinations of hands can feel overwhelming. But eclipsing that feeling is one of intrigue. There’s something about the game that keeps pulling people in. It’s seen in the unmistakable click-clack of mah jongg tiles around dining room tables, in the basement of a boutique shop and at community centers. Players are sitting down to learn the fast-growing tile game that is a unique blend of strategy, luck and socializing. Mah jongg is often compared to a mix of rummy and chess, and it challenges players to build winning hands while navigating an everchanging table of discarded tiles and split-second decisions. Behind the mah jongg movement are people who are teaching classes, hosting games and creating spaces where friendships form as quickly as the tiles shuffle.
Abbe Blacker, Minneapolis Mah Jongg Club
Abbe Blacker of Minneapolis Mah Jongg Club.
For Abbe Blacker, mah jongg is deeply personal. “I grew up in a house where the clicking of the tiles was the sound of my childhood. Even though my mother played mah jongg, I paid no attention,” says Blacker, the owner of the Minneapolis Mah Jongg Club. Her mother was an avid player, but Blacker wasn’t interested when she was a teenager. After her mother passed away at an early age, Blacker didn’t give mah jongg a second thought. That changed 10 years ago when a friend invited her to learn how to play. It was a full circle moment for her. “When I first started playing and pushing the tiles around, I felt like it was my mother’s hands doing it,” she says.
Blacker says mah jongg gave her a new purpose, and teaching it gave her joy. After helping her friends and extended circle learn how to play, she started teaching community education classes in Edina, Hopkins and Minneapolis. In the last decade, she estimates she’s taught 1,000 people. “The Edina classes were filling more quickly than the other places, and it fed me a lot of my clientele,” she says. “I was so busy doing private lessons in and around this area.”
Blacker was so busy that she decided to create a space where people can come to her. She opened the Minneapolis Mah Jongg Club at 50th & France in April. She sees today’s mah jongg explosion from the unique vantage point of someone who was teaching long before the craze hit. “Ten years ago, people didn’t know what it was. Now, everybody and their uncle wants to learn how to play,” she says. “Now, it’s like pickleball, [but] we’re exercising our brain. It’s not physical exercise. It’s exercising a social piece of our lives. It’s a way to build community and find others. It’s a bridge to so many good things.”
Despite the trendiness, Blacker remains committed to teaching the game deeply and thoroughly, favoring a four-class instructional model over one-off lessons. “I really do believe in a four-class model,” she says. “After four classes with me, you’re much more prepared.”
Sara Strothman, Four Flowers Mahjong
Sara Strothman
One of the students in Blacker’s four-class model was Sara Strothman. The Edina resident first discovered the game in 2024 after her oldest child left for college and her youngest started driving. “I found myself being like, ‘Huh. Wow. I have some more space in my life, some more time in my life to do something,’” Strothman says. An Edina Community Education email advertising a mah jongg class caught her attention. She signed up for Blacker’s course and enlisted nine friends with her. “I didn’t want to go alone,” Strothman says. The group still plays every other week. “We rotate houses. Eight to 12 people show up,” she says.
Strothman enjoyed this new social lifestyle so much that she found herself talking about mah jongg constantly, be it to a friend, hairstylist or neighbor. Eventually, people started asking her to teach them. “What ended up happening is they spread the word,” she says. “I ended up moving from teaching people I knew in their house to teaching in other people’s houses. I thought, ‘Well, OK, I can do this.’”
Strothman created Four Flowers Mahjong, but instead of students signing up for multiple classes over a series of weeks, she intentionally developed a one-session introductory model. “I wanted to make the entry into mah jongg easier for people,” she says. Her beginner course handles the basics and is a hands-on approach. Students are then encouraged to sign up for a Beyond the Basics course. After that, they can start open play.
Her approach reflects what she believes is drawing people to the game in the first place: connection. “I think it’s really sticky for people,” she says. “Once they start playing … it’s got that social component to it. It’s a way to spend time with others.”
Serge + Jane
Serge + Jane hosts mah jongg lessons and games year round. This summer, the business started hosting games on its rooftop. The tables are always set up using tiles and other items from Edina-based business, Mahjong Montage.
As mah jongg’s popularity surged, the game naturally found its way into an Edina boutique: Serge + Jane. The idea began when Jackie Fischer, founder of Mahjong Montage, and Strothman approached Serge + Jane owner Jamie Carl about hosting lessons inside the boutique’s lower level. “I know it’s slow in January, and I thought we should try it,” Carl says.
The response was immediate. The group began taking sign-ups in mid-December. Classes filled within weeks.
Jamie Carl of Serge + Jane.
Carl admits she was initially skeptical. “I don’t love games,” she says. “That first lesson, Sara is really clear and good at explaining it. She keeps it moving.” By the second lesson, Carl was hooked. “I felt the energy and the positivity of spending the two hours not being able to think about anything else and focus on the games and the tiles,” she says. “Everyone left in good spirits.”
Today, the boutique has become something of a mah jongg gathering place—a welcoming community hub where newcomers can connect, learn and shop. “I love the idea of having a space and a place that people could come to, where they didn’t have to know someone or they could come with a friend and meet new friends,” Strothman says.
Jackie Fischer: Mahjong Montage, Mahj Wear and Mahjie
Jackie Fischer, who owns several mah jongg-based businesses.
Some of the colorful mah jongg products sold at Serge + Jane come from Fischer, an entrepreneur whose growing collection of mah jongg-focused businesses includes Mahjong Montage, clothing line Mahj Wear and the Mahjie app.
Fischer originally hoped to sell mah jongg accessories online, but suppliers required her to operate a brick-and-mortar store. “I thought, ‘Why don’t I start designing the tiles myself?’ It kind of got started from there,” the Edina resident says.
Working with an illustrator, Fischer creates hand-drawn tile collections. “I wanted to use my creative outlet and find a way to do them on my own,” she says. “I consider every tile a little piece of art.”
Mah jongg tiles by Jackie Fischer’s business, Mahjong Montage.
Ironically, Fischer wasn’t even a serious player when she started designing products. “When I got started, I maybe had taken a couple of lessons,” she says. “I loved the look of the tables, the feel of the tiles.” As the business grew, so did her love for the game. “Now, we play as a family,” Fischer says. “My husband plays, my daughters play.”
Fischer launched an app, Mahjie, in the summer. The national platform is designed to centralize the growing mah jongg ecosystem. The platform will also help players find games, teachers and tournaments through zip-code-based searches and automated tournament management. “It’s a fully robust platform,” she says. “If you’re a teacher, you’re a host of some kind, you will be able to sell your tickets, sell your spots for tables on Mahjie.” For Fischer, she hopes the app will help people searching for connection, creativity and community: something Edina’s mah jongg scene seems to have in spades. Or should we say bams?
