Chi Chuen Chan Keis Ohtsuka Victoria University Y.T. Chan Hong Kong Baptist University

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Chi Chuen ChanKeis OhtsukaVictoria
UniversityY.T. ChanHong Kong Baptist University

• Superstitions among Mahjong Players in Hong Kong
  A Cultural Perspective

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• The aim of this paper is to study the
  superstitious beliefs among mahjong players in
  Hong Kong and Macau.
• Mahjong is one of the popular games in China. One
  of the great myths of Mahjong is that Confucius,
  the great Chinese philosopher, invented the game
  in about 500 BC.
• Now the game is widely enjoyed by people around
  the world. In 1920, Abercrombie and Fitch became
  the first Americans to introduce the game in USA.

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• There are two hypotheses
• Excessive gamblers would ascribe more
  superstitious beliefs than non-gamblers
• Adherence of the superstitious beliefs
  demonstrate a cultural perspective. Excessive
  gamblers and non-excessive gamblers both share
  some superstitious beliefs.

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• Method
• Subjects A total of 158 subjects was recruited
  from Macau. Background of the subject ranges from
  no formal education to college level.
• Instruments A Chinese adaptation of Canadian
  Problem Gambling Severity Index. This is a
  nine-item forced choice scale. The possible
  scores are from 0-27. Individuals scoring over 8
  are considered to be excessive gamblers.

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• The superstition questionnaires are constructed
  out of the most common superstitions of mahjong
  players. The list was designed out from a series
  of focused group discussions among Mahjong
  players in Macau.
• The list is shown here.

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• Results
• Both hypotheses are supported in the study.
• As a group, both the non-excessive gamblers and
  the excessive gamblers ascribe to common
  superstitious beliefs. The means for the
  non-excessive gamblers is 39.97 (SD9.45) while
  the means for excessive gamblers is 66.39
  (SD7.76). The total possible score is 90.

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• Excessive gamblers score significantly higher as
  a group.
• Among the many common superstitions, the widely
  endorsed are those that concerns about obtaining
  good luck or reversing bad luck. The ultimate is
  to win more money using peculiar behavioral
  pattern (like wearing the red underwear or
  urinate after a series of loss) or geographical
  arrangement (sitting to Feng Shui positions).

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• The range of the scores for the list superstition
  is 19-81 while the range for the Chinese
  adaptation of PGSI is 0-25.

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• Wearing Red Underwear to bring in luck

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• Wearing Red Underwear to beat the casino

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• Personification of mahjong

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• Talk to mahjong so that a good hand would come

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• Gender breakdown of participants

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• Discussion
• Why superstitions in Mahjong?
• Illusion of control (Langer, 1975)-----
• Mahjong players employ superstitions to exercise
  control on random events.
• Superstition fills in the gap between the
  unpredictable and reality---? serves to
  strengthen and gives meaning to the unpredictable
  world of gambling.

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• Why non-excessive gamblers still score an average
  of 39 out of a possible 90?
• The extreme cases can be more interesting. While
  those who scored highest on the PGSI (25 out of
  a possible score of 27) scored an average of 73
  on the superstition test compared to the average
  score of 32.3 by non-gamblers.

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• Why?
• (a) Superstition in mahjong might well be a part
  of the traditional Chinese cultural heritage.
• Chinese has a tendency to project success to an
  outside source. Such external locus of control
  find its roots on the obsessive wish to earn and
  preserves ones luck and reverse bad luck.
  Peculiar actions like wearing specific clothing
  and underwear are good manifestations.

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• The superstitions in Mahjong seems to be more
  collective rather than personal in nature.
• (b) Socio-cognitive theory of gambling (Walker,
  2004) excessive gambling is the consequence of
  irrational beliefs of the gamblers. But for
  Chinese excessive gamblers, they play mahjong not
  because of superstitious beliefs. They play with
  superstitious beliefs.

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• Superstitious beliefs fills in the gap between
  obsessive wishes of winning and the reality of
  loss. They give the gamblers, excessive gamblers
  or non-excessive gamblers, the courage and
  stamina to continue gambling.
• This explains why both non-gamblers and low risk
  gamblers (those score 0-2) on the PGSI share
  quite a number of superstitious beliefs.

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• (c) Mahjong is a cultural game where people can
  find social interaction without intimacy. Very
  often, it is a game shared by neighbors, friends
  and relatives, especially during festivals and
  holidays. To most of them, they gamble not for
  the money but with the money. As a product of
  Chinese cultural heritage, the superstitions are
  transmitted and perpetuated by parents and media.

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• (d) Specific superstitions like talking to
  mahjong and honoring mahjong are manifestations
  of the Chinese view of the supernatural world.
  Chinese has a tendency to impute life and spirits
  into non-living objects.

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• Thank you !

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