Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Shanghai / Hong Kong new style › Hong Kong old style › Taiwanese style
Taiwanese style
16-tile hand, 1980s
Sources
The documents this entry rests on, as published. Each can be opened and checked; nothing in this part is anybody’s reading of them.
Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. supporting checked 2026-09-18
https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html
chart’s note Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.
Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Late Qing style, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style and 44 more · bibliography #1
Mahjong Wiki. "Taiwanese Overview." mahjong.wikidot.com. canonical checked 2026-09-18
http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:taiwanese-overview
chart’s note Cited as the source for individual nodes in the chart's node table. Carries no bibliography or per-claim citations of its own; see the appendix on tracing the wiki.
Also cited on: Hong Kong Taiwanese · bibliography #44
Wikipedia. "Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong
AI summary The main article's regional-variations section, which describes most branches of this tree independently of the chart's own sources.
Also cited on: Proto-mahjong, Chinese classical, Hong Kong old style, Singapore style, Filipino style, Vietnamese classical and 7 more · bibliography #54
Wikipedia. "Scoring in Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoring_in_Mahjong
AI summary Comparative scoring across Hong Kong, Chinese Classical and Taiwanese systems, including the range of minimum-point conventions and the Mandarin and Cantonese terms for a scoreless hand.
Also cited on: Chinese classical, Modern HKOS, Zung Jung, Tui Dao Hu · bibliography #55
Mahjong Wiki. "Hong Kong Old Style Overview." supporting
http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:hong-kong-old-style-overview
chart’s note The 1950s simplification, removal of fu, the 1970s 3-3 system, and the late-1980s split into Taiwanese and Guangdong styles.
Also cited on: Hong Kong old style, Modern HKOS, Guangdong style, Guangdong MCR / GMCR · bibliography #8
Analysis
Written by an AI model from the sources above. It is a reading of them, not a source in its own right: every figure in it points back to a numbered source, and where the two disagree, the source is right.
Assessment
- Confidence
- documented a published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited
- Evidence
- corroborated two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant
Cross-comparison
What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.
| Source | Tiles | Hand | Flowers | Scoring | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | 144 | 16, out on 17 | melded instantly when received | count doubles, convert to points | winner only |
| [2] | 144 | 16 | dead wall 16 | pattern; unit tai; minimum 5 tai, maximum 300 tai | — |
| [3] | — | sixteen tiles, against thirteen in other versions | — | — | — |
| [4] | — | — | — | linear, using tai (台), where the winning hand's tai count is multiplied by a factor and added to a base score | — |
- [1] books: Amy Lo, Dragon Chang
- [3] features bonuses for dealers and recurring dealerships, and allows multiple players to win from a single discard. Separately notes that holding all eight flowers and seasons is an automatic win with a payout from all players
- [4] contrasts this explicitly with the exponential doubling used in Hong Kong scoring
Reading it
Four sources agree on the 144-tile set and the 16-tile hand, and two independently describe tai scoring as linear, which the wiki's infobox also shows. Wikipedia adds two structural features the chart omits and which distinguish the branch sharply from Hong Kong play: recurring dealerships, and multiple players winning from one discard. This is among the best-supported nodes in the tree.
In the tree
Descends from Hong Kong old style, as the source chart draws it.
Descends into
- Hong Kong Taiwanese — HKT