Online pre-registration required

Join Tea Base for a performative Mahjong game where a family group, Hannia, Jade and Chau Cheng will play together with Florence Yee facilitating and the audience acting as the fourth player!

From December 2020 – March 2021, Tea Base is in residence with MOCA. A plan to host monthly Mahjong Halls on Michael Lin’s installation Archipelago (2020) has been reformatted to launch online. Once MOCA can reopen and it is safe to do so, the programme will activate the space and be hosted in person. Additionally an instructional manual has been produced by Tea Base that anyone can download and spend more time with. During their virtual residency, Tea Base will also be conducting research into oral histories to create a living archive of grassroots endeavours by queer and BIPOC collectives in the neighbourhood.

Mahjong is a tile-based game played in much of East and South-East Asia, originating sometime in the Qing dynasty. There are different rules in each location, although the version Tea Base play is the Hong Kong style. It is meant to be a gambling game, but most people only use chips to keep score. As a tool for social engagement, it is often seen as a game for seniors, like in the dozens of Mahjong halls in family associations in Toronto. It is used by Tea Base and the community as a way of practicing Cantonese, connecting others and working the brain.

Don’t forget to download Tea Base’s Mahjong Instruction Booklet to become familiar with the game of mahjong.

Animation based on an illustration by Christie Carrière