Culture guide · Mahjong
Your First Mahjong Night? Ask These Three Questions.
Before game night, three questions can help you find your seat at the table.
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Culture story · Mahjong
How Mahjong Became Part of American Life
Follow regional roots, several routes, and the people who made room for the game.
Culture guide · Celebrations
Invited to Lunar New Year Dinner? Start Here.
Ask about the plan, check before bringing something, and let your hosts lead.
Culture story · Art & objects
A Dragon on a Vase? Look Closer.
A dragon is a starting point. The object around it gives you a better story.
Culture story · Language & stories
Who Is the Monkey King, Before the Video Games?
The Monkey King’s first leadership move? He found the group a home—and made sure they kept their promise.
Culture story · Celebrations
Why Do People Share Mooncakes?
A mooncake question that gets a better story: “Who do you usually share these with?”
Culture guide · Food & drink
Chinese Tea Without the Fancy Equipment
Your first Chinese tea tasting doesn’t need a gear haul. Start with one tea and one thing to notice.
Culture guide · Everyday culture
How to Give a Gift Without Overthinking It
The easiest gift rule to remember: ask the person you’re actually visiting.
Culture guide · Language & stories
What Does That Chinese Character Actually Show?
Before guessing a Chinese sign from its shape, save the whole phrase. Context gets the last word.
Culture guide · Celebrations
Chinese Zodiac: Culture, Not a Personality Test
A zodiac animal can start a conversation. It shouldn’t finish your judgment of someone.
Culture guide · Food & drink
Why Are There So Many Kinds of Dumplings?
Before ordering “dumplings,” ask three things: wrapper, filling, and how they’re cooked.
Culture story · Art & objects
A First Look at Chinese Calligraphy
Can’t read the calligraphy yet? Start with the label, then notice where a line changes weight.
Culture guide · Celebrations
Red Envelopes: What They Mean and What to Ask
Wondering about red envelopes? Ask about the occasion and the relationship before looking for a dollar amount.
Culture guide · Celebrations
Dragon Boat Festival: One Race, Several Stories
Dragon Boat Festival rewards a closer question: whose version are we hearing?
Culture guide · Celebrations
Qingming: The Small Work of Remembering
At Qingming, tending a place can open a conversation about a person.
Culture guide · Celebrations
Lantern Festival: Look Inside the Bowl
Lantern Festival brings lights, riddles, and reunion into focus without making every rice ball identical.
Culture guide · Celebrations
Double Ninth: Who Sets the Pace?
Double Ninth invites attention to place, remembrance, and the people walking beside us.
Culture guide · Everyday culture
The Chinese Calendar: Why Festival Dates Move
Festival dates shift on a US calendar because lunar months and the solar year do different jobs.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Chinese Paper-Cutting: Look at the Gaps
A cut-paper design invites you to notice what has been removed as well as what remains.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Chinese Shadow Puppetry: Behind the Screen
A moving silhouette is the visible end of a much larger performance.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Peking Opera: Watch a Hand
Start with a gesture, then make room for voice, rhythm, and theatrical convention.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Guqin: One String, Different Sounds
Seven strings open a conversation about touch, listening, and the limits of a quick introduction.
Culture guide · Everyday culture
Tai Chi (Taijiquan): Watch the Transition
Look at movement as learned cultural practice, without turning observation into an exercise prescription.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Blue-and-White Porcelain: A Flask Between Worlds
One porcelain flask makes cross-cultural design more concrete than a broad story about influence.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Chinese Silk: Before the Loom
A craft chain connects mulberry leaves, thread, fabric, and people learning together.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Chinese Woodblock Printing: Before the Page
Carving and printing are different jobs in a shared production process.
Culture guide · Art & objects
A Chinese Garden in New York: The Astor Court
The Astor Court is a specific collaboration, not a miniature of every Chinese garden.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Chinese Seals: Who Left That Red Mark?
Artist and collector seals ask different questions of the same artwork.
Culture guide · Food & drink
Chinese Chopsticks: Writing at the Table
A cataloged Chinese pair brings writing and a dining utensil together.
Culture guide · Language & stories
Chinese Names: Which Part Is Wu?
Wu Gongfu appears in Columbia University’s Chinese Names teaching page.
Culture guide · Everyday culture
Tangrams: Seven Pieces, Another Possibility
Seven loose pieces can look like the beginning of a picture you have not recognized yet.
Culture guide · Everyday culture
Go (Weiqi): The People Around the Board
Who gets remembered around a Go board? A 1609 manual opens a story about players, publishers, and people outside the spotlight.
Culture guide · Art & objects
Chinese Landscape Painting: A Copy That Changes
Wu Li’s Travelers among Streams and Mountains drew on an earlier painting. The story follows a composition from one artist to another.
Saved learning
Learn the tiles and a simple winning hand
By Casual Chinese Mahjong
Beginner lessons in a creator’s simplified 13-tile game—not NMJL or standard Taiwanese rules.
Why a museum curator calls mahjong a classic
By The Strong National Museum of Play
Why a game endures across communities. History and interpretation, not playing rules.
Look at mahjong through historical materials
By Hagley Museum and Library
Historical materials and manufacturing in the US. Not a lesson on playing the game.
Explore one Hong Kong mahjong teaching version
By Casual Chinese Mahjong
One creator’s Hong Kong adaptation. Your group may use different rules.
Find the official American mahjong card
By National Mah Jongg League
NMJL is an organization. Find its annual American mahjong card here—not a full beginner lesson.
What NMJL Online includes—and leaves out
By NMJL Online
Clarifications for NMJL Online. Not the full rulebook or every group’s house rules.
Explore Chinese Lunar New Year symbols
By Asian Art Museum
Holiday symbols from one museum educator’s perspective, not rules for every household.
See one character written in four scripts
By The Metropolitan Museum of Art
One character in four scripts, made for the 2023 Year of the Rabbit. Not a full language course.
Look closely at a dragon on porcelain
By The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Views and context for one Qing-dynasty vase. Not a guide to every dragon image.
Make a red envelope with a written wish
By Asian Art Museum
Folding instructions and a template link. Not advice on how much money to give.
Meet the stone monkey in the original text
By Wikisource — Journey to the West, chapter 1
Read the waterfall episode behind our retelling.
Explore one Mid-Autumn story
By Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
Read about reunion and one version of Hou Yi and Chang’e.
See what the Classic of Tea pays attention to
By National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan
Learn why water, utensils and production belong in a tea story.
Hear how one holiday differs by family
By Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
Follow a grandmother’s radish cake and a Washington cultural exchange.
Compare labelled seal-script forms
By Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
Compare labelled forms before guessing a character from its appearance.
Follow one version of the Great Race
By British Council
Check animal order and the cooperation described in this adaptation.
Meet an artist who shared her dumplings
By Smithsonian Folklife Festival
See Tian Yali’s family recipe in the setting of the festival’s China program.
Look at letters that became calligraphy models
By National Palace Museum, Taiwan
Learn how Wang Xizhi’s letters were transmitted through copies and modelbooks.
Read a Singapore Chinese account of red packets
By Culturepaedia — Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
Read about blessings, local names and the Sui legend.
Make an opera-inspired Monkey King mask
By Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
Museum introduction and opera-inspired mask craft; not a game or full opera course.
Explore tea and tea wares with a DC tea host
By Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
Archived tea introduction with an embedded video; full playback and captions not reviewed.
Dragon Boat Festival: a classroom introduction
By Hong Kong Education Bureau
Read a school introduction to boats and festival stories, including Qu Yuan.
Qingming: remembering and tending a place
By Hong Kong Education Bureau
Explore ancestor remembrance, shared preparations and spring outings.
Tangyuan in a little cookbook
By Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
Read about tangyuan, reunion and the occasions when people eat them.
Chung Yeung: a Hong Kong visiting notice
By Hong Kong FEHD
See a specific 2026 example of arrangements for ancestor visits.
Why Chinese festival dates move
By Hong Kong Observatory
Read how lunar months and the solar year fit into the Chinese calendar.
Paper-cutting: the UNESCO overview
By UNESCO
Meet the cultural practice behind the paper-cutting story.
Shadow puppetry: the UNESCO overview
By UNESCO
Explore the cultural practice behind a shadow-puppet performance.
Peking opera: the UNESCO overview
By UNESCO
Find background for the voices, gestures and conventions in our opera story.
Guqin: the UNESCO overview
By UNESCO
Read cultural background for the seven-string instrument in our story.
Blue-and-white porcelain: a museum record
By Kimbell
Follow the source behind our story about one flat-sided porcelain flask.
Silk-making: the UNESCO overview
By UNESCO
Find background for the people and craft process behind silk.
Woodblock printing: the UNESCO overview
By UNESCO
Find cultural background for carving and printing a page.
The Astor Court: museum background
By The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Read about the Chinese garden court discussed in our New York story.
Chinese seals: an exhibition source
By Hong Kong Museum of Art
Follow a museum source behind our story about red marks on artworks.
Chopsticks: one collection record
By Concordia Historical Institute
Read a collection record for one Chinese pair of chopsticks.
Chinese names: teaching examples
By Columbia University
Explore examples that help you ask about names with more context.
Tangrams in an art-and-culture kit
By University of Oregon
Start at printed pages 47–48 for the kit’s tangram section.
Weiqi: people around the board
By University of Washington
Read background for our story about weiqi and its social setting.
Wu Li: a landscape painting record
By The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Follow the museum record behind our story about reworking an older painting.