Hong Kong old style

Descends into

• Modern HKOS — 3-faan minimum, 1970s
• Guangdong style — 1980s, additive scoring
• Taiwanese style — 16-tile hand, 1980s
• Nanyang variants — descent disputed
• MCR / Chinese official — 1998, Guobiao
• Zung Jung — Alan Kwan, 2000s

Cross-comparison

conflicting — sources disagree materially, or one source contradicts itself

• [1] few special hands; books: Perlmen & Chan, Constantino, Li, Lo, Tsui
• [2] minimum and maximum both 'varies'; branched off traditional mahjong after WWII, prevalent among the upper class of Shanghai and Peking
• [4] in the same table HKOS scores 0 similarity against 1920s standard Chinese Classical and 4 against the 1920s 'New Method', supporting the chart's decision to descend HKOS through an intermediate new-style node rather than directly from Chinese Classical
• [5] describes Hong Kong or Cantonese mahjong as differing from Chinese Classical in minor scoring details, and states it does not allow multiple players to win from a single discard, which is the opposite of the Taiwanese rule

Reading it

Tiles, hand, scoring and payout agree across three sources. The date does not. The chart says fu was removed in the 1950s; the wiki's own Guangdong page dates the adoption of Clear Chapter, with pungs unscored and fu removed, to the 1970s; the wiki's HKOS page says only that HKOS branched off after the Second World War. The chart appears to have merged the post-war emergence of HKOS with the later Clear Chapter reform. Sloperama's early-forms table separately scores HKOS at 0 similarity to Chinese Classical, which supports descending it through a new-style intermediate.

Sources

1. Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-09-18

   Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.

   https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html

   Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Modern HKOS, Taiwanese style and 43 more · bibliography #1

2. Mahjong Wiki. "Hong Kong Old Style Overview." canonical checked 2026-09-18

   The 1950s simplification, removal of fu, the 1970s 3-3 system, and the late-1980s split into Taiwanese and Guangdong styles.

   http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:hong-kong-old-style-overview

   Also cited on: Modern HKOS, Guangdong style, Guangdong MCR / GMCR, Taiwanese style · bibliography #8

3. Wikipedia. "Hong Kong Mahjong Scoring Rules." supporting checked 2026-09-18

   Faan scoring, the common 3-faan minimum and the 13-faan ceiling.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_mahjong_scoring_rules

   Also cited on: Modern HKOS · bibliography #18

4. Sloper, Tom. "Comparative Analysis of Early Mah-Jongg Forms." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-09-18

   Chinese Archaic, Late Qing and Pre-Classical rule comparisons.

   https://www.sloperama.com/mahjongg/analysis.html

   Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Late Qing style, Chinese pre-classical, Japanese classical / arushiiaru · bibliography #4

5. Wikipedia. "Mahjong." cross-check checked 2026-09-18

   The main article's regional-variations section, which describes most branches of this tree independently of the chart's own sources.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong

   Also cited on: Chinese classical, Taiwanese style, Singapore style, Filipino style, Vietnamese classical, Vietnamese modern and 6 more · bibliography #54

6. Perlmen, Samuel K. and Mark Kai-Chi Chan. The Chinese Game of Mahjong. Book Marketing Ltd., Hong Kong, 1979. ISBN 962-211-0169. supporting

   The only book the wiki cites by name, used as a whole fan-list column. Sloper's book FAQ describes it as covering both Old Style and New Style as played in Hong Kong, which is precisely the distinction the wiki's taxonomy is built on. This is the likeliest backbone of its HKOS material.

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/658815.The_Chinese_Game_of_Mahjong

   Only cited here · bibliography #27

7. "Let's Mahjong!" ruleset, as tabulated on the Mahjong Wiki HKOS scoring page. supporting

   Cited as a second fan-list column and treated as the representative New Chapter standard. The wiki describes it as the transition from HKOS to Guangdong Style. It is a ruleset, not a scholarly source, and the wiki gives no publication details for it.

   http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:hong-kong-old-style-scoring

   Also cited on: Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Guangdong style · bibliography #28

8. Cantonese fan lists: New6 (六獨), New18 (十八番), and 無奇不有. supporting

   Named on the HKOS and Hong Kong New Style pages. These are traditions internal to Hong Kong play. The wiki's own caveat is that NEW18 may not in fact be standardised at all.

   http://mahjong.wikidot.com/rules:hong-kong-new-style-overview

   Only cited here · bibliography #29

9. Tsui, Cofa. International Mahjong Rules, 1998. supporting

   An independent Hong Kong Old Style codification, useful as a check on the wiki's fan tables.

   http://www.cofatsui.com/mahjong.html

   Only cited here · bibliography #36