Culture and traditions in China : board games.
By Patrick Evesque
9 July 2008
In China, people just love sitting outside in the street or parks where they play games.
No matter if it's raining or if it's cold, people of all ages and social classes will just pull up some old chairs, a rickety table and play. The Chinese are rather passionate for gambling, and considerable amounts of money are involved.
Nevermind the game, you will find the same atmosphere, the same serious way of playing.
These games usually draw a crowd of onlooks, often more expert than the players themselves. They feel free to offer advice on how the game is going and what move should be made next.
These advices often turn into raging arguments between the spectators with raised voices, animated waving and gesturing.
But some traditional Chinese games like Mahjong were banned in their homeland in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded. The new Communist government had forbidden any gambling activities, which were regarded as symbols of capitalist corruption. A workingman ought to spend his money on his family and not on gambling, the President had decided. After the Cultural Revolution, these games were revived.
And once again, gambling has become again one of the favorite pastime of the Chinese, as well as in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and and many other places in the world.
I'm showing here, by my photographic approach, how similarly Mahjong and Xiangqi are played.
A small part of history:
One of the myths of the origin of Mahjong suggests that Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, had developed the game in about 500 BC. According to this myth, the appearing of the game in the various Chinese states coincided with Confucius' travels at the time he was teaching his new doctrines. Also, this myth claims that Confucius was fond of birds, which would explain the name "Mahjong" (sparrow). However, there is no evidence of Mahjong's existence before the Taiping era in the 19th century, which eliminates Confucius as a likely inventor.
The general consensus is that the game was developed from existing Chinese card and domino games sometime around 1850. Many historians believe it was based on a Chinese card game called Madiao also known as Ma Tiae, lit. hanging horse or Yezi , lit. leaf in the early Ming dynasty.
Xiangqi is the traditional chinese chess game and one of the most popular board games in the world.
Xiangqi has a long history. Though its precise origins have not yet been confirmed, the earliest indications reveal that the game was played as early as the 4th century BC in China.
Some sources state that the creator of Xiangqi is Han Xin. It is said that Xiangqi was created by Han Xin to prepare him for the battle against Xiang Yu.
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