An American in Suzhou
Joseph Park Babcock worked for the Standard Oil Company in China and learned mahjong there. Recognising that Western players found the Chinese game confusing, he set out to write a simplified version with English terms and printed numerals on the tiles. He published his rules in the early 1920s.
His book, Babcock's Rules for Mah-Jongg, became known as the Red Book because of its cover. It introduced many Americans to terms still used in Western play, such as "pung", "chow" and "kong".
The trademark
Babcock registered "Mah-Jongg" as a trademark, and sets sold under that name — imported in partnership with business associates — carried his rules. Competitors had to invent other names, which is why 1920s sets appear under so many brands. The name, with its distinctive double g, became the standard American spelling.
A simplified game
Babcock's rules reduced the complexity of Chinese scoring and standardised the play for a Western audience. Later American writers and associations made further changes, adding limit hands and, eventually, moving toward the card-based system of the National Mah Jongg League.
His legacy
Babcock's influence is easy to underestimate because the modern American game has moved so far from his rules. But his book, his tiles with Latin index numbers and his trademarked name did more than anything else to make mahjong accessible to English-speaking players in the 1920s.
