Myjong Mahjong

Created by Malaysian duo Kaiyi Wong & Adrian Lean. MyJong reimagines the traditional mahjong set through a distinctly Malaysian lens.

Publication

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How the Game Began

MyJong began during the Covid-19 era in 2021, when I was working as a designer at Red Hong Yi Studio. During MCO, like many Malaysians, I was spending most of my time at home. Around that period, my sister introduced me to mahjong. At the same time, we were preparing for a group exhibition under Red Hong Yi Studio titled Thank God It’s Monday, where each designer was encouraged to develop our own passion project. What was meant to be a one-off exhibition piece slowly became something much larger.

What If?

MyJong reimagines the traditional mahjong set through Malaysian culture, food, and collective memory. It began with a simple question: if mahjong has been played in Malaysia for generations, why does it still feel like it belongs only to one community? In MyJong, familiar mahjong symbols are replaced with local snacks, cultural motifs, and everyday Malaysian references. Curry puff, kuih lapis, satay, otak-otak, wau, kolam, batik, lion dance, and indigenous patterns become more than decoration. They form a visual language of belonging. Each tile becomes a small fragment of memory, something recognisable, playful, and quietly nostalgic. MyJong keeps the rhythm and ritual of mahjong, but opens it up as a shared cultural table, inviting people from different backgrounds to sit together, touch the same tiles, and begin again.

MyJong reimagines the traditional mahjong set through Malaysian culture, food, and collective memory. It began with a simple question: if mahjong has been played in Malaysia for generations, why does it still feel like it belongs only to one community?

In MyJong, familiar mahjong symbols are replaced with local snacks, cultural motifs, and everyday Malaysian references. Curry puff, kuih lapis, satay, otak-otak, wau, kolam, batik, lion dance, and indigenous patterns become more than decoration. They form a visual language of belonging.

Each tile becomes a small fragment of memory, something recognisable, playful, and quietly nostalgic. MyJong keeps the rhythm and ritual of mahjong, but opens it up as a shared cultural table, inviting people from different backgrounds to sit together, touch the same tiles, and begin again.

From One Game to a Duo

The first MyJong set was never planned as a long-term project. But through its response, material experiments, and the questions it opened up, it became the beginning of a continuing series exploring games, culture, identity, and materiality. Along the way, Adrian Lean joined the project, and together we developed MyJong into a duo-led brand. What began as a personal passion project grew into a shared platform for reimagining familiar games through a Malaysian lens.

The Game Keeps Changing

What began as MyJong continued to grow into a wider exploration of games and material culture. In 2024, we held our first solo exhibition, MyJong Parlour, at The Gasket Alley in Kuala Lumpur. The series later expanded into Rummy, which was launched and exhibited at Tsutaya Bookstore. Continuing the same spirit of cultural reinterpretation, Malaysia Rummy explores the beauty of multilingualism in Malaysia by replacing the usual playing-card suits with different written languages and characters. Chinese characters, Malay and Jawi forms, Tamil characters, and newly invented mixed-language symbols are brought together as a reflection of Malaysia’s layered identity.

Still Evolving

The latest chapter of the series is the frosted acrylic edition, created in collaboration with Core Design Gallery and launched as part of the group exhibition piecesbycore. Where the earlier wooden editions carry warmth, weight, and craft, the acrylic edition introduces translucency, softness, and light. It gives the tiles a quieter, almost ghost-like quality, turning a familiar game into something more delicate, luminous, and collectible. Across its editions, MyJong continues to shift between game, object, and artwork. Wood brings warmth and tactility. Acrylic introduces translucency and light. Concrete and terrazzo-like materials carry a nostalgic memory of old Malaysian homes. At its core, MyJong is a love letter to Malaysia, not as something fixed, but as something noisy, layered, playful, and constantly shared.