Cultural Appropriation Through Blanding: Where The Mahjong Line Went Wrong

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The Mahjong Line is a Dallas, Texas-based company that started near the end of 2020 with the goal of sharing their love of American mahjong. Sounds harmless enough, right? Their website features a few different sets of tiles with vibrant colors and cutesy illustrations—and sure, they’re around $400, but they’ll look pretty adorable on your Urban Outfitters coffee table.

Oh, and did we mention the company was founded by three white women? And that they intended to “refresh” the game by stripping the tiles of the Chinese characters which you would traditionally find on them?

Editorial photograph

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