The fashion of (presumed) “Chinese” card games began in the late ‘800, reaching its apex in the Twenties of the last century with the spreading of MAHJONG (if you are interested, you can read my critic reconstruction in the Tangram Italian magazine, year 3rd, number 9, December 2004).
Periodically, games with Chinese roots are being proposed again and again, along with special cards for them, and they are sold in stand-alone boxes.

	A very rare reproduction of one of the KANHOO cards.

We can’t go wrong starting from a game surrounded by an aura of legend: KANHOO.
KANHOO was produced by card game manufacturer Charles Goodall in 1891. It is believed (Dummet, The game of Tarot, London, 1980) that Goodall accepted a specific wish by W.H. Wilkinson (1858-1930, an important character when it comes to study card games and Chinese card games), who wanted a special deck of cards which allowed the adaptation of a Chinese card game belonging to the so-called Rummy Game family (rummy game is an expression embracing several kind of games similar one to another for their mechanic of drawing and discarding to obtain combinations), originally played with the typical traditional three suits Chinese Money Card deck: by adding a rulebook it would have been an original card game.

The deck had 60 cards, i.e. two series of cards ranging from the Ace to Nine of Diamonds , Hearts and Clubs (a total of 54 cards, newly illustrated but maintaining the standard layout), plus a series of J, Q and K with a different picture from the standard deck, repeated 2 times (6 special cards outside the normal series).
We lost any trace of this deck (only very few copies survived), but its rules did not pass unnoticed, one hundred years later, by Sid Sackson, who in Card Games Around the World (Dover, 1994) reported a version of the game adapted for 2 standard Poker decks slightly modified to reach 60 cards (this is useful to play SANPEN, TOTIT and KOWAH as well: all these games originated between China and Java and can be flawlessly played with this adaptation of the standard deck).

History repeats itself (with the publication of an original game derived by an equally original Chinese game) ninety years after. The box of MHING was published by U.S. publisher Suntex International Inc., Easton, PA (copyright 1982); in Europe we had versions by Spear and Piatnik. With this deck of 150 cards you could play almost all MAHJONG current varieties (it still lacks something, like the four red Fives of the Japanese variation): however, bear in mind that the 8 Flower cards (no seasons) are not indexed and they don’t have any recognition mark (so you get no doubles for your flower).
Bamboos, Circles and Characters (the latter with a different character depicted for each of the nine values) are stylishly sketched, Winds are clouds wrapping or sweeping the sky, while Red, White and Green Dragons are actual “dragons”.

In this deck the 6 special cards (basically Jokers, sporting the game logo along with, here it comes, a fourth dragon), with the addition of two of the white cards included in the deck, would allow to have the eight Jokers of the North-American game (maybe for the rest of the world this is a useless addition, but for the spreading of the game in the USA this is a crucial feature).

	Four tiles from the traditional Mahjong, playable also in the form of a deck of cards...

The game is declared from 2 to 6 players. The closing hand is always with 14 cards, always 4 combinations and 1 pair. Bonuses are collected considering the 18 allowed combinations, developed from various MAHJONG forms, which can be obtained in your hand (there are combinations worth 1, 3, 5 and 8 bonuses).
For example: without straights (1 bonus), two identical straights (3 bonuses), two identical three of a kind (1), all three of a kind (3), etc; there is also a prize (of 3) for 14 cards without any allowed combination, not even a pair; each Flower is worth 1 bonus.
Points are scored depending on the bonuses collected for each combination, all of which can be added together (e.g. 1 bonus = 2 pts; 2 bonuses = 4 pts; 3 bonuses = 8 pts; 4 bonuses = 16 pts; 5 to 7 bonuses = 32 pts; 8 to 10 bonuses = 64 pts; and so on until 41 bonuses worth 131,072 points). There are no doubles, since it is essentially a sort of simplification of new style Chinese Mahjong. To give a good reason to buy it, the game comes with 6 cards showing bonus point tables, synoptic tables of combinations, a special scoring sheet and also a supply of coloured fiches.

Then, a dramatic turn of events, a turnabout. In a leaflet dating back to 1991 (Mah Jong, The Rules of Playing the Chinese game, by Tze-chung Li, printed by Chinese Culture Service of Oak Park, Illinois), in chapter XI/B, it is stated that the “bridge” (sic) cards “may be used to substitute for the MAHJONG tiles” (as well as for the typical cards still on sale, not only in China).
One would need 4 decks with the same back, modified as follows: Spade cards from the A through the 9 as Characters (36 cards); Hearts cards from the A through the 9 as Bamboos (36 cards); Diamonds cards from A through 9 as Circles (36 cards); Club cards from A through 4 as Winds (16 cards); J, Q, K as Dragons (12 cards).
With these 136 cards a game of MAHJONG could be played, although mister Li does not seem to strongly encourage a try (we don’t know what suggested the matching Hearts/Bamboos, Diamonds/Circles and Spades/Characters, and we don’t want to risk misleading conjectures).
Even if we are not able to tell how many human beings played MAHJONG with this system, we record how, on the Eastern front, they are willing to implant the most famous oriental game into the world of standard Poker cards.

Actually, things are not what they seem. In China, today people play indeed with French-suited standard decks of 52 cards, almost always with the addition of two Jokers, generally a red one and a black one. With this deck they play regularly several games of the so-called (not by Chinese) “climbing” kind of games (the term recalls both the overcoming of the tricks and the “climbing” in role), “trick taking” games with points (in this class of games the Chinese card values are unique: 10 points for the King, 10 points for the Ten and 5 points for the Five), and “fishing” games (trick taking-style of games similar to the Italian SCOPA).

In the climbing kind of games, which are especially widespread and that are the most interesting for us, the current player must either play a card or – and here comes the fun – a combination of cards, provided it is worth more than the combination shown by the previous player. He is allowed to pass if he can’t (or does not want to) overcome the previous combination.
The game proceeds (possibly for several turns) until a player goes undefeated (all other players pass). Who wins begins the next trick.
As you may guess, since all players have the option to pass, soon players will find themselves with a different number of cards in their hands. According to the game played, the object can be either to
a) empty your hand
or
b) collect certain cards (which are worth points) with the tricks won so far.

The referring game for representativeness and spreading was and still is the Chinese game ZHENG SHANGYOU (which means, more or less, “fighting with a lot of struggle against the stream” – essentially, “climbing”) , which was described in English by John McLeod in the late 70’s of last century (we owe him, among thousand of things about card games with his tireless work on www.pagat.com, the introduction of many Chinese games in Europe).

In ZHENG SHANGYOU the aim of the game is to get rid of all cards (no card is worth points).
At the end of each deal a social hierarchy is determined, with a “boss” (the first player who successfully emptied his hand, thus gaining two points), a “foreman” (the second player to empty his hand, gaining one point), a “worker” (the third one, gaining no points) and a “dogsbody” (the last one, who for instance will have the demanding task of dealing the cards).
At the beginning of the next deal, before starting to play, “worker” and “dogsbody” put quietly their highest card on the table, face up, so that the “boss” can choose the one he prefers letting the other one to the “foreman”; likewise, “boss” and “foreman” discard their lowest card so that the “worker” can choose one of them letting the other one to the “dogsbody”. In Japanese setting, the four characters are called, respectively, as “King”, “Nobleman”, “Poor Man” and “Very Poor Man”.
All of this explains why this is a game of “social climbers”, as David Parlett appropriately defined the basic elements of games of this sort in his A History of Card Games, Oxford, 1991.

When it was first published (1980), ZHENG SHANGYOU has been a real flash: experts like Thierry Depaulis of the French magazine Jeux et Stratégie discovered a strong similarity with a French card game – seemingly arrived in France via Indochina? – aptly called TROUDUC (it is the indecent Trou du C.: if you speak a very colloquial French you will immediately realize what it refers to), which is played with a standard 52 cards deck plus a lone Joker, and featuring the roles of “le patron”, “le contremaître”, “l’ouvrier”, and, of course, “le trouduc”.

Besides, the dramatization of roles of this kind can be traced in Italy (for example) in the inn game PASSATELLA (registered with this name in the Public Tables of Forbidden Games), traditionally aimed to the drinking of wine (or, in the last decades, beer).
In Italy is generally known, especially in the Rome area, the classic description of Luigi (“Giggi”) Zanazzo (Rome, 1860-1911), with declarations and relative positions of “Conta”, “Padrone”, “Sotto” and “Olmo” or “Ormo” [sort of “Count”, “Boss”, “Below” and “Elm” ---Translator’s note], which however does not provide for game cards; in certain Southern Italy zones, instead, as in the city of Bari, the engine of the game is sometimes taken from the still existing game of PRIMIERA (played with a deck of 40 Italian cards with suits of Swords, Batons, Cups and Coins), for the development of a single round to determine the starting of the remaining game session.
Anyway, it is useful to note, to avoid misunderstandings, that for the most part Chinese card games are played with a bet in money, and money usually changes owner very quickly during the game. In addition, the younger fans of special cards game have surely recognized the “social climbing” mechanics used quite recently (1995) by Richard Garfield in his game THE GREAT DALMUTI (see Golden Oldies in this same issue of GiocAreA).

Now, Days of Wonder of Sausalito (CA) distributes GANG OF FOUR, reshaped on an original Chinese game by Lee F. Yih (originally published in Hong Kong in 1990; the boxes currently show copyright 2002).

Diamonds < Clubs < Hearts < Spades

The deck is completely dealt, 16 cards to each player. The game proceeds counter-clockwise for the first round, then it alternates the clockwise/counter-clockwise order during the following rounds (this happens in a Chinese version of the game, too), to lessen the weight of the player placement around the table.
The starting player of the first round is the one with the Multicoloured One (in the Chinese game it is generally the 3) who plays one of the 8 allowed combinations, at his choice. The Gang of Four, which gives the name to the game, is a combination of four cards with the same value, and may be < of Five (five cards with the same value) < of Six (six cards) < of Seven (all the seven Ones in play).
On a given combination, only a combination of the same kind, but with higher value, can be played.
It is allowed to pass even if you have a playable combination: this option is essential for the game development.

In GANG OF FOUR, too, there is a “climbing” mechanism: at the start of each round, after dealing the cards and before playing, who lost the previous game (i.e., the player with the most cards in his hand), passes his highest card to the winner of the previous round; this player then chooses one card from his hand and passes it to the “last” player.
As soon as one player empties his hand, the round ends and points are tallied, using a score system (inspired to the Chinese game) punishing the players with most cards in their hands:

The game ends when someone reaches 100 points: the player with the lowest score is the winner.

There’s more. Fata Morgana Spiele distributes TICHU (copyright 1989 Fata Morgana Spiele; copyright 1998 AbacusSpiele): a box with 56 cards with gold back and white ideograms for the basic game (4 players in teams of two), plus a deck of 52 cards with black back and white ideograms for the game with 5 to 10 players (which the French rules refer to using the phrase “Quelqu’un est toujours le Trou du C.”: does this says anything to you?), and 4 additional cards with score tables.
This game seems to have lots of followers in Germany and Switzerland; there is in existence an ATP, Association of Tichu Players. The box says “642 million of Chinese people every day play TICHU”. It is more likely that all these people play actually a game very similar to ZHENG FEN, regularly played in China with a standard deck of 52 cards plus 2 Jokers (value of the cards: 3 < 4 < 5 < 6 < 7 < 8 < 9 < 10 < J < Q < K < A < 2 < Black Joker < Red Joker; suits have all the same value).
In the basic deck of 56 cards there are four suits of Jades, Swords, Pagodas and Stars, each made up by 13 cards with values 2 < 3 < 4 < 5 < 6 < 7 < 8 < 9 < 10 < J < Q < K < A. There are 4 special cards with no suit: the Hound, the Dragon, the Phoenix and the Sparrow. The Sparrow card is called, with a correct expression under the lexical point of view, mahjong...