HONG KONG — Just opposite the entrance to a neon-lit night market, one of Hong Kong’s few remaining carvers of mahjong tiles engraves the two Chinese characters for the number 8,000 on a piece of acrylic. His is a dying craft in an era of mass-produced tiles for the table-top game, popular in southern China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The 65-year-old artisan believes there are only three or four carvers left in Hong Kong. “For hand-carved mahjong tiles, when you look closely, you can see each of them is different,” he said. Hong Kong once was dotted with mahjong parlours, where people could play against strangers for money, but few are left.

Source: National Post April 25, 2019 05:48 UTC