A little help to go deeper

Learn at your pace.

Videos, rules guides, and museum collections. Watch selected videos here, or explore the original learning notes and collections.

Not sure where to start?

Learning mahjong? Start with your group’s version. A history resource won’t teach you the rules for tonight’s game.

Which mahjong resource fits my game?

Ask your host which rules your group uses. These are three starting points on our shelf, not every way to play.

Watch

Learn the tiles and a simple winning hand

By Casual Chinese Mahjong

Beginner lessons in a creator’s simplified 13-tile game—not NMJL or standard Taiwanese rules.

Creator’s simplified Chinese teaching game — 13-tile hands
Watch

Explore Chinese Lunar New Year symbols

By Asian Art Museum

Holiday symbols from one museum educator’s perspective, not rules for every household.

Chinese Lunar New Year — museum educator perspective
Watch

See one character written in four scripts

By The Metropolitan Museum of Art

One character in four scripts, made for the 2023 Year of the Rabbit. Not a full language course.

Chinese calligraphy — rabbit character; 2023 celebration
Look closer

Look closely at a dragon on porcelain

By The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Views and context for one Qing-dynasty vase. Not a guide to every dragon image.

China — Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period
Read

Explore one Mid-Autumn story

By Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art

Read about reunion and one version of Hou Yi and Chang’e.

Festival introduction and legend
Read

Hear how one holiday differs by family

By Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art

Follow a grandmother’s radish cake and a Washington cultural exchange.

First-person account of a 2018 museum event
Read

Meet an artist who shared her dumplings

By Smithsonian Folklife Festival

See Tian Yali’s family recipe in the setting of the festival’s China program.

2014 festival recipe and family account
Read

Make an opera-inspired Monkey King mask

By Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art

Museum introduction and opera-inspired mask craft; not a game or full opera course.

Museum craft activity — not a performance or costume standard
Watch

Explore tea and tea wares with a DC tea host

By Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art

Archived tea introduction with an embedded video; full playback and captions not reviewed.

Archived museum feature — Chinese tea and gongfu brewing
Read

Tangyuan in a little cookbook

By Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Read about tangyuan, reunion and the occasions when people eat them.

PDF · food and festival background
Read

Guqin: the UNESCO overview

By UNESCO

Read cultural background for the seven-string instrument in our story.

Cultural heritage overview
Read

Chopsticks: one collection record

By Concordia Historical Institute

Read a collection record for one Chinese pair of chopsticks.

Object record · limited information
Read

Chinese names: teaching examples

By Columbia University

Explore examples that help you ask about names with more context.

Teaching examples · not universal naming rules
Read

Weiqi: people around the board

By University of Washington

Read background for our story about weiqi and its social setting.

Background reading · not a full rules lesson
Read

Wu Li: a landscape painting record

By The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Follow the museum record behind our story about reworking an older painting.

Museum object record · text checked

An editor-selected starting shelf, not a complete course. Selected videos play here. Source links open at the original provider; access and availability can change.

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