In Hong Kong, Mahjong Endures
No matter where you stand in Hong Kong, there’s a game of mahjong being played nearby, in someone’s living room, in a mahjong parlour or in the back room of a shop. (Every weekend, without fail, the owners of a flower shop around the corner from me invite some friends over to play mahjong in the adjacent lane.) So when my friend Zoe Li and I were assigned to do a TV news feature for one of our classes at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre, mahjong was one of the first topics that came to mind. Our angle? Whether mahjong is adapting to generational and technological change.
Like our audio slideshow on cage homes, this was a first-time effort: neither of us had made a television news story before. It’s a fairly restrictive process—you have to adhere to conventions and formula—and one that I’m not particularly fond of. But I do love the medium of film and video, so you can expect more from me, especially as I work on my camera skills. By this time next month you should be able to watch my 15-minute documentary about the Jamia Mosque and the people who live and worship there.
Tags: Games, Hong Kong, Kowloon
