The Gay Black Asian Mahjong Brigade

I got invited to a birthday party by an online friend. He's Black and all his friends are Black and Asian mixed race couples. (If people who like white guys are called "Potato Queens" and people who like Asian guys are called "Rice Queens", what do you call people who like Latino guys and Black guys, "Taco Queens" and "Collard Green Queens"?) I have never met him in real life before but I was very interested to meet him because he has traveled half of Asia and he can speak Mandarin and Cantonese, plus he whispered the magic word: "Mahjong".

I'm a game addict, Mahjong is where it all started. When I was an infant, my grandmother used to have me on her back while she plays Mahjong. My first words may well be "Red Dragon", at least that would probably be the first Chinese character that I recognized. It is a family game, it helps with Alzheimer's, it IS one of the treasures of China.

Dinner was good, I met some very interesting people. The group is consists of non-profit workers, IT guys and doctors. It's the general stereotypes. Oddly enough, amongst these gay men there is this straight Chinese couple who is very, very reserved. The wife is this very submissive type that don't even dare to eat without permission from the husband and the husband is said to be very interested in gay men.

After dinner, we went back to my online friend's home had the birthday cake and started our game. In between, we discussed politics and watched Sixth Sense and had a lot of fun. It's intellectually stimulating and I'm thrilled to meet some nice people. I can never find gay Asian friends in Philly, if you go up and talk to them they either think you're interested in them or they think you are their competitors for the few white men who likes Asians. Phooey...

I leave you with this miraculous invention:



It's sold for around $1,500, looks very impressive and maybe very cool for a while. But the excitement would eventually fade. Looks very hard to repair if it breaks down and it does take part of the fun away. I wish it wasn't so hard to find mahjong players in Philly.