Shanghai Flower Cards

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This past weekend, I procured an interesting tile game from a Mahjong shop
that's been around for awhile. This was made in the same way as Mahjong
tiles and look like Mahjong tiles (coloured back, white front), but the
faces show traditional Chinese dominoes (no blanks, ones and fours are red,
double sixes also have half the dots red). These seem to come in three
suits - a suit with a single rectangular outline to the domino dots, in
which there is only one of each domino; a suit with a double rectangular
outline, in which there are two of each domino; and a suit with no outlines,
in which there are three of each domino. There are also four separate tiles
with double rectangular outlines and the characters for the four seasons,
not to mention six blank tiles, presumably for engraving if you lose some
tiles.

I was told these were Flower Cards (hua pai) and were for a game played by
the Shanghainese. Unfortunately, the shopkeeper could not tell me anything
about playing the game, other than the detail that people sang while they
played it.

Would anyone be able to tell me more about these tiles, and the rules for
the game that is played with them?

Regards,
Keng Ho

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.mahjong (More info?)

"Pwee Keng Ho" <kengho@singmail.com> wrote in message news:<cdjco8$5ip$1@reader01.singnet.com.sg>...

> This past weekend, I procured an interesting tile game from a Mahjong shop
> that's been around for awhile. This was made in the same way as Mahjong
> tiles and look like Mahjong tiles (coloured back, white front), but the
> faces show traditional Chinese dominoes (no blanks, ones and fours are red,
> double sixes also have half the dots red). These seem to come in three
> suits - a suit with a single rectangular outline to the domino dots, in
> which there is only one of each domino; a suit with a double rectangular
> outline, in which there are two of each domino; and a suit with no outlines,
> in which there are three of each domino. There are also four separate tiles
> with double rectangular outlines and the characters for the four seasons,
> not to mention six blank tiles, presumably for engraving if you lose some
> tiles.
>
> I was told these were Flower Cards (hua pai) and were for a game played by
> the Shanghainese. Unfortunately, the shopkeeper could not tell me anything
> about playing the game, other than the detail that people sang while they
> played it.
>
> Would anyone be able to tell me more about these tiles, and the rules for
> the game that is played with them?

How many tiles are there?

The set you describe reminds me something which seems to have been
quite popular a century ago, which Culin and Wilkinson called ' HUA
HE' ("flower + peace", Cantonese 'fa ho'), or HUA WANG ("flower +
king", in Hankow). These were a kind of domino cards (not tiles
actually) made up in three series + some "jokers" (JIN) totalling 126
cards or more.

Also, in Macau, anthropologist A.M. Amaro (in her book "Três jogos
populares de Macau : chonca, talu, bafá", Macau, 1984) reported a
similar, more recent game called 'bafá' using 94 domino *tiles*. I
have alas never seen this book so I cannot say more. I am told the
tiles were something between mahjong and 'huahe pai' cards.

Cheers,
Thierry

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.mahjong (More info?)

"Pwee Keng Ho" <kengho@singmail.com> wrote in message news:<cdjco8$5ip$1@reader01.singnet.com.sg>...
> This past weekend, I procured an interesting tile game from a Mahjong shop
> that's been around for awhile. This was made in the same way as Mahjong
> tiles and look like Mahjong tiles (coloured back, white front), but the
> faces show traditional Chinese dominoes (no blanks, ones and fours are red,
> double sixes also have half the dots red). These seem to come in three
> suits - a suit with a single rectangular outline to the domino dots, in
> which there is only one of each domino; a suit with a double rectangular
> outline, in which there are two of each domino; and a suit with no outlines,
> in which there are three of each domino. There are also four separate tiles
> with double rectangular outlines and the characters for the four seasons,
> not to mention six blank tiles, presumably for engraving if you lose some
> tiles.
>
> I was told these were Flower Cards (hua pai) and were for a game played by
> the Shanghainese. Unfortunately, the shopkeeper could not tell me anything
> about playing the game, other than the detail that people sang while they
> played it.
>
> Would anyone be able to tell me more about these tiles, and the rules for
> the game that is played with them?

Hello Keng Ho. I agree with what Thierry has said about Hua He et al.
These sound very interesting. Could you send me a picture of these
tiles? Also, do you know how old these tiles are?

Cheers
Michael

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.mahjong (More info?)

On 20 Jul 2004 23:32:45 -0700, thierry.depaulis@freesbee.fr (Thierry
Depaulis) wrote:

>Also, in Macau, anthropologist A.M. Amaro (in her book "Três jogos
>populares de Macau : chonca, talu, bafá", Macau, 1984) reported a
>similar, more recent game called 'bafá' using 94 domino *tiles*. I
>have alas never seen this book so I cannot say more. I am told the
>tiles were something between mahjong and 'huahe pai' cards.

Since I am Portuguese I might be able to find the mentioned book at
the local library - in fact it's the perfect excuse to start a
research about Mahjong in Macau I was planning to do. I will keep you
posted.

A quick online search on the Portuguese National Library gave me the
following results:

Author: Ana Maria Amaro
Title: Três jogos populares de Macau chonca, talu, bafá
Publication: Macau : Instituto Cultural, 1984
Description: 107 pages; illustrations; 26cm

The author also wrote a few more books about Macau: folklore, popular
medicine, social studies, botanic, games, toys, dressing, etc

Another potentially interesting books I found out about:

Author: Lung-Thang
Title: Mah-Jong Lung-Thang
Publication: Lisboa : Livr. Bertrand [1934]
Notes: Teoria, prática e regras do Jôgo [Theory, practic and rules of
the game]

Title: Regras explícitas do jôgo chinês "Mah-Jongg" [Explicit rules of
the chinese game "Mah-Jongg]
Publication: [1934 ( Lisboa]: s. Tip.)
Description: 20 pages; 22 cm

Author: J. M. F. Rosiers
Title: Regras explicitas do jogo chinês "Mah-yongg"
Description: 1 page: illustrations. ; 21 cm


Cheers,
Filipe