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Many games, especially ancient ones, have their own set of manners. For instance, Go players bow before the game and greet each other ("onegaishimasu") and play the first stone in the upper right corner [etc]. Is there something similar in mahjong, too?

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Why was this flagged as spam? –  mafutrct Oct 27 '10 at 20:54
Onegaishimasu not the "standard greeting of Go," is very specifically Japanese. Go is played in a lot more countries than just Japan though. It didn't even originate in Japan, Go just recently became popular in the western world through the surge of Japanese culture there, hence the image. –  deceze Oct 28 '10 at 1:45

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up vote 2 down vote accepted

Mahjong (actually Majiang - 麻将 in mandarin) is really just played like a card game. It's mainly played in China and doesn't have the "manners" that you can find in Japanese traditions.

Old people play mahjong like they would play a card game, some people play for money, but there are no manners to follow others than the rules of the game.

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Thanks for answering an old open question. I was wondering what your background in Go was? Or perhaps, what is your source for this answer? Thanks! –  Pat Ludwig Dec 23 '10 at 5:33
Background in majiang you mean? I live in China. Neighbors (old people) play the game everyday, my wife's father goes gambling sometime and just everyday life experience. Other people might have had different experiences in a club or other countries (I've heard there's an European mahjong league!), but there is no specific manner traditionally. (as far as I know) –  user545 Dec 28 '10 at 10:57

In addition to the insight given by repecmps, I'd like to add this link. It points out a few common sense ideas about politeness in games, and also has notes on tournament play. This is not exactly "manners", but I guess it's related.

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