American vs Chinese Mahjong: What Is the Difference?
By Roxanne Corbett, founder of Mischief Mahj · Updated 2026-08-26
American Mahjong uses a 152-tile set with 8 jokers, wins only with a hand printed on that year's National Mah Jongg League card, and opens with the Charleston passing round. Chinese Mahjong uses 144 tiles, has no jokers, no card, and no Charleston, and any four sets plus a pair can win.
The differences at a glance
Both games use the same three suits, the same winds and dragons, and the same rhythm of draw a tile, discard a tile. Sit down at either table and most of what you are holding will look familiar. The differences pile up in four places: the jokers, the card, the Charleston, and what the flowers are for.
| What changes | American Mahjong | Chinese Mahjong |
|---|---|---|
| Tiles in a set | 152 | 144 |
| Jokers | 8, wild inside groups of three or more | None |
| What wins | One hand printed on this year's card | Any four sets plus a pair |
| Opening | The Charleston passing round | No Charleston |
| Flowers | 8 working tiles, all interchangeable | Bonus tiles set aside for points |
Jokers: the American signature
The 8 jokers are the whole reason an American set has 152 tiles where a Chinese set has 144. They do not exist in the Chinese game at all.
A joker can stand in for any tile inside a group of three or more identical tiles: a pung of three, a kong of four, or a quint of five. It can never be a single tile or half of a pair, which is why pairs are the shape American players guard hardest. A quint always needs at least one joker, because only four copies of any tile exist.
Jokers also move around during play. When one is sitting in a group a player has already exposed on the table, anyone holding the real tile it stands for can swap for it on their turn and take the joker into their own rack. That exchange, and the strategy of baiting and spending jokers, has no counterpart in the Chinese game.
The card: what you are allowed to win with
American Mahjong is the version with a card. The National Mah Jongg League publishes a new one each spring, it lists every hand that is legal to win with that year, and everyone at the table should be playing the same year's card.
That one object changes the goal of the game. In Chinese Mahjong you are building any four sets plus a pair, so the shape of a winning hand is up to you. In the American game you are building one specific pattern from a printed list, exactly, and the list resets every April.
The hands themselves are the League's to publish, so you will not find them reprinted here. Buy the current card from the League directly.
The Charleston, which the Chinese game does not have
Before anybody draws a tile, American players run the Charleston. Each player passes exactly three tiles at a time: first to the right, then across, then to the left, trading away whatever fits nothing in their rack.
The table may then agree to a second Charleston running the opposite way, and you and the player opposite may finish by swapping up to three tiles in the courtesy pass. Chinese Mahjong has no equivalent. Play simply starts after the deal.
Flowers: working tiles or bonus tiles
An American set has 8 flowers and they are ordinary working tiles. They sit in your rack, join groups, and count toward your 14 like any suit tile, and they are all interchangeable, so any flower satisfies a hand that asks for flowers.
In most Chinese versions flowers are bonus tiles instead. You set one aside when you draw it, take a replacement tile, and it scores extra at the end without ever being part of the hand.
Coming to the American game from a Chinese one
Two adjustments do most of the work: the jokers and the flowers. Jokers are new, and they rescue groups you would otherwise have to draw your way into. Flowers stop being bonus tiles you set aside and start being tiles you actually hold, often from the very first turn.
The third adjustment is the card, and it is a habit more than a rule. Instead of playing toward any winning shape, you sort your rack after the deal, notice which sections of the card your tiles already lean toward, and stay flexible through the Charleston before you commit to one.