Hold All the Aces, and You Will Win

Walking the streets of China, one will discover a society seemingly addicted to playing cards and mahjong. The Chinese still enjoy some centuries-old games, while other traditional ones vanished amid the rush for a modernized digital community.

Widely known as the birthplace of playing cards, China invented the first set of playing cards as early as the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). It was called leaf game, as the cards were intentionally designed as palm-sized for convenient handling.

In the 12th century, Marco Polo, the famous Italian traveler, introduced the cards to Europe, and it soon caught on across the continent due to its easy accessibility and various game-play mechanics. Born from the Chinese card games, Whist and Bridge began to appear and later flourished. Finally, the modern card game known as poker started gaining ground.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the rules of poker began to develop. In addition to the leaf game and mahjong – a variation of madiao game – poker began to spread across China, especially in the southern regions.

But as more people accepted the game, more people began playing. And soon after, gambling became a social problem.

The popularity of playing cards peaked during the Qing Dynasty. Within the insulated court of the Qing Dynasty, however, mahjong was banned and the courtiers had to make playing cards on their own. The royal family members often played cards together to pass the time. One could notice that the front of each card is much clearer and the color rarely fades because of the quality of the materials exclusively available to the court.