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B C B U S I N E S S . C A
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 5
THE CHINESE GAME
OF MAHJONG IS
HAVING A MOMENT.
Meghan Markle loves it. (She and her
"Maj Squad" play at girls' nights, she con-
fessed on her Netflix series, With Love,
Meghan.) Julia Roberts gushed to late night
show host Stephen Colbert that she plays
weekly with actress niece Emma Roberts
and their girlfriends. The classic four-per-
son parlour game has also turned into a
must-have amenity for luxury hotels: Ace
Hotel New York, for one, hosts regular
game nights.
Here in B.C., the renaissance has
arrived. The newly launched Lucky Tile
Mahjong Events is introducing people to
the traditional game in a fun, pressure-free
environment. While the offerings are still
in their infancy, Lucky Tile hosts learn-to-
play seminars and practice socials, as well
as corporate activations and community
gatherings. The demand has been crazy:
events are selling out quickly and are fre-
quently waitlisted.
"A lot of people shy away from learn-
ing new things, but it's been amazing
to see how many people will come and
frankly not be good at something," says
co-founder Vivian McCormick. Though
she only started playing in 2024, the game
was a fixture of her childhood. ("My mom
was always playing with her friends, but I
was never invited to the table," she recalls.)
Today, she says, "it's a fun thing—it gets
people off their phone and looking at each
other and talking."
A recent sold-out two-hour learn-to-
play session I attended drew dozens of
people of all skill levels (I was green—a.k.a.
never touched a tile), all coming together
to learn the Hong Kong style of play. Each
table is assigned an "auntie" (really, just
an experienced coach—ours was a man in
his 20s who grew up playing with family)
who helps explain rules and strategy and
walks players through practice rounds. The
READY TO PLAY
The Hong Kong style of play is the name of the game
at Lucky Tile's events, where players are grouped into
experience levels and are assigned an "auntie" to
walk them through rules, strategy and etiquette.
M A H J O N G
