I made my first zine

June 6, 2026 Lili Chin

After visiting the LA Art Book Fair last month, and then receiving a copy of the very cool International Mahjong Manual zine as a birthday gift, I was fired up to make my own zine!

I actually have several zine ideas and this is the first one!

Mahjong Styles is a collection of illustrations that show a few of Mahjong's regional and diaspora variants. I have drawn eight styles: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singaporean, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Sichuan.

And in the tradition of my Dogs/Cats Playing Mahjong prints, these variants are played by cute anthropomorphic animals!

Mahjong Styles is neither a "What is Mahjong" nor a "How to Play" guide. I see this more as a creative experiment for myself and a kind of personal response to the growing popularity of Mahjong in the US and the fact that it has been getting mainstream media attention that often unfairly conflates it with "American Mahjong", which is a very different game with the same name that was developed by non-Asians, outside the Asian Diaspora. I recommend reading the brilliant Traversing the Mahjong Multiverse by Nicole Wong. This zine focuses on the Mahjong that intergenerational Asian-American communities play!

Drawing MAHJONG STYLES

All the illustrations are drawn from real games of Mahjong - played by me, or by someone else - that I took photos or screenshots of. I drew every single tile from each of these real games. It was a mostly tedious process that made me feel so much extra respect for traditional mahjong tile carvers!

For example, my Japanese Mahjong/Riichi illustration was based on a game that I played (and won!) at Wan Collective's most recent Langley Center event.

YouTube videos and Mahjong apps were excellent learning and visual references for variants that I hadn't personally experienced. Below, on the left is a screenshot from a video of Malaysian 3P Mahjong from PLAYMahjong. On the right - from an online game of Singapore Mahjong. (Super old school interface!)

And when I couldn't find any visual references for Vietnamese style Mahjong (I was told Vietnamese Mahjong is more popular with elders in the Diaspora than with younger people), we read some rules and played the game ourselves with Jay's set, which I am looking forward to playing again because there are so many interesting extra tiles!

Printing Decisions

Initially I wanted to make this a RISO-printed zine, but as the mahjong tile illustrations are extremely small and detailed, I wasn't sure if this will work. (Please correct me if I am wrong about RISO's suitability)

I have been making test copies at home: All pages are printed on Neenah Classic Crest 24lb premium paper, using my ancient (not 100% reliable, sometimes leaky) Epson P800 printer which delivers lovely images but is SLOW AF. Each copy takes 5-10 minutes to print double-sided, fold, and staple together. The results are also not always perfect, though as Nathan reminds me - it's a homemade zine; it doesn't have to be perfect!

As fast production/sales may not be feasible this way, I am exploring other printing options right now. Stay tuned as I decide where to go from here! I will let you know when signed copies of Mahjong Styles are ready for sale.