As Taiwan hurtles toward becoming a super-aged society, a new political party has emerged with an unusual and somewhat singular platform — making mahjong great again.
While playing the centuries-old game is legal, it has been treated with suspicion by authorities for its association with gambling in public gaming rooms, which is prohibited.
Organized crime groups have long maintained a lucrative side hustle by hosting illegal betting matches, while gaming parlors — some legitimate, some not — often find themselves raided or inspected by police.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Kuo Hsi (郭璽), a 65-year-old owner of a mahjong parlor in Kaohsiung, has decided it is time to allow betting on mahjong games, and launched a new party toward that goal.
The Mahjong the Greatest Party wants the game declared a “legitimate recreation,” and for gambling and prize money to be allowed.
“Let’s be frank. You can put a bet on anything if you want to gamble. Even rock, paper, scissors,” he said in an interview at his parlor. “Why do we insist on branding mahjong as a form of gambling?”
“Any form of competition — gaming, golf, tennis, badminton — they all have some form of prize in the end. They all do. When there are prizes, competitors will do their best to train themselves physically and mentally. Mahjong playing is exactly the same,” he said.
Max Chang, 31, a gaming consultant who has been playing mahjong with his family since he was young, is among the party’s first members.
“I identify very much with Kuo’s ideals. As a young man who plays mahjong frequently, I am always wary about people calling the police on us,” he said.
Echoing that sentiment, 62-year-old housewife and party member Amy Huang said: “I look forward to playing mahjong openly and not having to hide.”
Huang said her mother-in-law, who taught her how to play, was taken to a police station once for betting in a game with friends, an incident she described as “ridiculous.”
Kuo knows he has some way to go to break into Taiwan’s political mainstream.
The current membership of the party, which was founded last month, is 120 people, but he said he is optimistic that he can get 10,000 registered party members by the end of this year.
Kuo has applied to authorities to register the party and is hopeful that it can be approved soon.
He aims to get enough political momentum going to secure a referendum next year to amend the law.
Kuo also hopes to secure at least one lawmaker-at-large seat in national elections in 2024.
As a parlor owner, Kuo has strong business reasons to see mahjong gambling allowed and regulated, but he also has a more altruistic goal, believing that bringing mahjong out of a gray area could help Taiwan’s elderly people live happier, more sociable lives.
Nearly 17 percent of Taiwan’s population is over 65.
The nation is projected to join Japan and reach “super-aged” status in 2025, when that proportion reaches 20 percent.
“Taiwan is an aging society with more and more senior citizens, especially in remote areas, and they mostly stay at home watching TV,” Kuo said.
“If they can get together with people of their age to play mahjong, to chat with others, it will help improve their quality of life and bring happiness,” Kuo said. “This is a good activity for them.”
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping