Sarah Teng began holding mahjong nights in her New York apartment as a way to compete with her friends and see who was the best at this ancient game. Curling around the dining table with her friends and fellow players, Ernest Chan, Grace Liu, and Joanne Xu, they were all clacking the tiles and sharing stories. However, something interesting began to bubble up. The relaxed atmosphere of the game created connections that went beyond their usual social interactions, and when they started sharing their game nights on social media, they discovered they weren’t alone.
What began as a tool to connect during the lockdown has turned into gregariously more. The 200-year-old Chinese tile game that actress Julia Roberts makes a habit of playing with her girlfriends every week is now causing romantic connections through dating apps and online platforms. From warehouse parties in Brooklyn to nice hotel game nights, mahjong is leading the way as the unexpected foundation of today’s social networks and romantic connections.
The Social Revolution Behind the Tiles
The Green Tile Social Club that Teng and her friends founded has grown from two concrete tables at Pier 35 to events drawing 700 people to Brooklyn warehouses. Their success reflects a broader trend: young adults are craving authentic connections in ways that traditional dating apps can’t provide. “New York is a very lonely place,” Teng explains. “The reason why the club has grown so quickly is because there was a gap in New York culture in terms of ways to meet people.”
This hunger for genuine connection has made mahjong particularly appealing for romantic encounters. Dating platforms have started integrating game features, while established sites offering Mahjong online have noted an increase in player base, with many of those gaming connections having the potential to become much more. The structured nature of the game provides natural conversation breaks while revealing personality traits that standard dating conversations often miss.
The game’s appeal crosses generational and cultural lines, and with that, it creates opportunities for connections that might not happen otherwise. Angie Lin’s East Never Loses in Los Angeles has even introduced matchmaking nights where players receive free entry if they bring someone from a different age group, fostering intergenerational relationships alongside romantic ones. Angie even met her girlfriend during one mahjong game.
Digital Platforms Embrace the Trend
Today’s dating platforms have realized the inherent value of mahjong’s potential to generate connections. Some dating platforms now include gaming functionality, such as log in and play with a partner, or have simply partnered with established gaming sites so that users can play together. Dating platforms recognize that even a simple activity is going to create a much stronger bond than a purely conversational interaction. Others simply make a whole dating app that focuses solely on gamers.
Additionally, the establishment of Discord and Reddit communities focused on mahjong has created informal dating spaces where individual connections form simply by coming together regularly to play. There is a significant difference between getting to know someone in a one-on-one context at a first dinner meeting and getting to know someone gradually because you have come together multiple times in a low-stakes, social context.
Even gaming platforms themselves have recognized an opportunity to tap into the dating market by enhancing social features, such as incorporating more robust voice chat and letting people customize their profiles with more personal details.
Creating Communities That Last
The success stories that have emerged from mahjong communities illustrate the capacity of mahjong to forge long-lasting connections. Players from different backgrounds, from creatives and tech geeks to a diverse crowd attending the warehouse parties at Green Tile Social Club, have each noted that they form long-lasting friendships that extend beyond the game itself.
Another example is South Shore Mahjong in Hingham, Massachusetts. People visiting this mahjong club emphasize the sense of community they are getting while playing the game, and the founder, Gretchen Robards, describes that everyone is excited even after playing the game for only 20 minutes.
Mahjong communities also allow for something that dating apps often don’t provide, and that’s context. Instead of preliminary judgments based on a curated set of photos and a brief bio, people get to see actual behavior throughout multiple games. They see how someone reacts when someone makes a surprising move, how someone cheers for the success of others, and how someone copes with their own mistakes.
Moreover, the thrill of playing against people from different generations also enables some untraditional dating opportunities. Events where players of different ages mix, allow people to connect and build friendships, and sometimes intimate relationships, where the limits to connect based on traditional age-related dating parameters would have never allowed them.
Conclusion
The integration of mahjong into modern dating culture represents a natural evolution in how people seek authentic connections. This ancient game simply provides structured interaction that reveals true personality while creating shared experiences. Something that swipe-based dating apps cannot: genuine insight into compatibility. As Sarah Teng discovered, sometimes the best relationships begin not with perfect profile pictures, but with the simple act of clicking tiles together around a table.
