Do you remember how Forrest Gump was preparing for the biggest ping pong match of his life to be pla

Do you remember how Forrest Gump was preparing for the biggest ping pong match of his life to be played in China? Well, he came, he played, and he kicked butt. I am pretty sure “Lose Face” were the words of the day.　　The Forrest Gump pipedream visits me every now and then. I have always fantasized about standing atop the gold-medal podium for the Red, White and Blue; victory paddle in one hand, 24-karats around my neck, Chinese opponents on both sides, with Old Glory rising and the Star-Spangled Banner playing. Ok, wake me up. Who am I kidding? The Chinese will lose their number one spot on the ping pong podium when Hainan Island freezes over. And that's why I started playing the glorious game of ma jiang.　　If you can't beat 'em at ping pong, ma jiang must be the second best thing, right? Now, I am not talking about mahjong, the matching tile game you play on the computer to kill time; I am talking about bona fide, cutthroat Chinese majiang.　　I feel the most "Chinese" when I am sitting at the ma jiang table raking in the dough. And most of the time, in terms of making money, Chairman Mao's face is my friend, but hot streaks easily give way to cold ones. Indeed, most of ma jiang is a game of luck; I would say 70% luck and 30% skill.　　Unlike poker, in ma jiang, reading your opponents tends to be almost impossible, so tense stare downs are rarely seen.　　Perhaps, I am the only Westerner in this city who plays ma jiang competitively. I guess you could call me the Da Shan of ma jiang, and that's part of the thrill for me. The other part of it is being just as skilled as my Chinese opponents, who started playing ma jiang when I was just a little kid, swinging the Little League bat back stateside.　　Truly, when I started playing ma jiang, I didn't know what I was gonna get; I didn't realize back then, that today, I would love it so much. I am a competitive person, so I guess ma jiang and me turned out to be-well-you know, like those two compatible veggies. In the end, if ma jiang one day becomes an Olympic event, you know what's going down. (390 words)

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