Clack, shuffle, repeat. For more than a century, mahjong has looked pretty much the same: white faces, green backs, and a whole lot of auntie energy. That’s changing fast.

The classic two-tone look goes back to the game’s 19th-century Qing dynasty roots, when tiles were made from carved bone faces joined to bamboo backs. When Western players got hooked on “Mah Jongg” in the 1920s, demand was so high that cow bone was shipped from the US to China. Then came the plastic era: butterscotch Bakelite and Catalin in the ’20s and ’30s, and two-tone melamine after WWII. Melamine gave us the mass-produced green-and-white sets that still sit in every grandma’s cupboard.

But it seems that Gen Z is over it. On RedNote, sellers are taking custom orders for handmade resin tiles filled with glitter and rhinestones, painted with anime faves, or stamped with logos from luxury houses like Chanel, Hermès, and Dior. Add automatic mahjong tables that can look more like a museum piece, and grandma’s game has gone from bone to bling.

Brands are joining in too. Haidilao has made a set, and McDonald’s China’s 2023 set, with fries in place of bamboo tiles, sold out all 2,000 copies in seconds. Our favorite is still the McDonald’s x My Little Pony collab, though.

All images via Xiaohongshu.