The Red Dragon & The West Wind: The Winning Guide to Official Chinese & American Mah-Jongg

The book does a great job describing the American and Chinese versions of this great game.

I used this book as a reference guide

Good background information on Mah-Jongg. Book arrived promptly. Unfortunately packed in an envelope so the corners were somewhat bashed up. A few pages had some vertical stains on them, but they appear to have been part of the printing process, not the seller.

I bought this inexpensive set for individual home practice; it’s fine for that. For actual play, it would be extremely frustrating; racks just hold 13 tiles without room for moving them without one or more falling off the ends.

I bought this as a complete beginner of Mahjong.It does well to explain how to play the Official Chinese version of Mahjong (I did not read about the American version). The scoring criteria for Official/International Chinese Mahjong can be downloaded from the organization's website, but the rulebook is terse and not easy for a beginner to understand. This book spells out clearly how to play and it is organized well for quick-reference. It is really just for beginners, though.I did not give it five stars because it is good, but not "exceptional". Some of the photos in this book overlap with those in The Great Mahjong Book, by Jelte Rep. This latter book is much nicer in terms of color photos and print quality, yet in its attempts to be "old-timey," it often reads like a 19th-century travelogue. The Great Mahjong Book is good for getting an overview of a number of different styles (especially the Dutch style), but it is not as useful for beginners as The Red Dragon and the West Wind.Definitely choose The Red Dragon and the West Wind if you want something more like a manual, in order to start playing Official Chinese Mahjong, (or the American version he explains).

This book, while claiming to be written for beginners, is inundated with what comes across as the authors arrogance and preference for advanced players as well as the importance of strictly adhered to rules over the relationships of friends seated at the table. While this may be appropriate for a Mah-Jongg player who wishes to increase his/her skill and advance into tournament play, it is not written for family and friends who play on the weekends as a social event. The writing is technical and dry and filled with an abundance of nit-picky information best left to someone who already has a basic understanding of the game. For example I can't imagine inviting family or friends over to my house to play only to force them to follow these stipulations:"Declaring a pung more than 3 seconds after a tile was discarded is penalized first by a warning; a second occurrence penalized by loss of 5 points." p.143"If you find yourself struggling with a jumble of disassociated tiles...others will start to cough, Roll their eyes, and drum their fingernails impatiently. If this happens pass any three tiles. Just try not to let any more fingernails drum, eyes roll, any more throats to tighten into subtle coughs...The beginner who tries to win may win a few times, but they won't be invited back to play again" p.110."Do not carry on a conversation while playing. Don't fidget. Don't be the slowest playing at the table. Pay attention and act when you are supposed to act" p.202I give this book two stars because it is appropriate as a rule book in the event that a question arises during play, but that is all. Learning to play with this book would only lead the beginner to feel frustrated and ultimately unwelcome at the table of those who already know how to play.Instead, I highly recommend "A Beginner's Guide to American Mah Jongg" by Elaine Sandberg. This is an excellent book for learning and her style of teaching/writing is not so arrogant but is focused on teaching the game through an easy to read/understand conversational style.

Since my oldest son watches a lot of anime, they are always depicted playing mahjong so we decided to learn and found different types from NMJL, MCR, Riichi, HKOS, etc. We started playing NMJL at first since that was the first one I heard about, but soon got drawn to MCR and Riichi.I have to say that I primarily bought this book for the Official Chinese rules but it included everything I ever wanted to know about NMJL rules. This cleared up a lot of misconceptions I have playing NMJL and showing my kids how to play.It is a great read and very detailed for us novice players but includes strategies to build up your game. This book also pairs perfectly and is an extension of his website Sloperama.

I have always wanted to learn how to play Mah Jongg. I even bought a set, which is an American set, but the instructions that came with it were obviously written by someone whose first language was not English--most likely, Chinese. The instructions were virtually impossible to comprehend, so my Mah Jongg set sat for a couple of years. I finally found a group that plays Mah Jongg and they recommended this book. Up to that point I never realized there was a difference between Chinese and American Mah Jongg. The book is easy to read, well-layed out, and gives excellent explanations to understand the game. The game could appear very complex and possibly intimidating, but this book makes it all make sense. Of course, practice makes perfect! I highly recommend this book. For those that play computer Mah Jongg, be advised you are not playing anything like Mah Jongg. You are just learning tile recognition.

A good bookWhen choosing a mahjong book ensure it’s fir the rules you want ton play

Not the best mahjong book I have recently read. I dislike the fact that the author mainly uses the American names for the suits throughout the book. The rules, though, are explained plainly and the advice contained is sound.

EXCELENTE DESCRIPCIÓN DEL JUEGO UTILIZANDO EL MODO DE CONTAR CHINO, MUY EXPLÍCITO Y CON ACLARACIÓN DE DUDAS, PARA CASOS DE CONTROVERSIA

This book doesn't contain much more than a detailed report of Chinese and American rules. It is way too pretentious to claim being a 'winning guide'.

Excellent, arrived very quickly