Epilogue
From the twentieth century into the twenty-first, mahjong’s cultural meaning continued to evolve and diversify along with the social, demographic, and technological changes that marked each era. Today mahjong is once again rising in popularity. The game’s adaptability continues to undergird its evolving social meanings, from ongoing ethnic and gendered resonances to a new digital world and increasing diversification. A mahjong revival is being fueled by collectors interested in the game’s aesthetics and materiality, nostalgic baby boomers recalling their mothers’ forms of play and community, and younger generations looking for ethnic roots and undeterred by gendered stigmas, as an American gaze increasingly fixates on a China seen as, once again, both alluring and ominous.