Mahjong CompendiumVietnamese modern

Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Shanghai / Hong Kong new style › Hong Kong old style › Nanyang variants › Vietnamese classical › Vietnamese modern

Vietnamese modern

176+ tiles, 24+ jokers

Sources

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.

  1. Guide Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. canonical 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.

    for this variant The chart's catalogue entry; gives the modern set as '176 or more' tiles, with no date or rules of its own.

    Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Late Qing style, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style and 45 more · bibliography #1

  2. Encyclopedia 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.

    for this variant The encyclopedia's summary of the count (176 or 184). Sloper's 177th tile and the 188-tile sets in Sloperama's later documents show the count is open-ended, so '176 or 184' is narrower than '176 or more', not more precise

    Also cited on: Proto-mahjong, Chinese classical, Hong Kong old style, Taiwanese style, Nanyang variants, Singapore style and 10 more · bibliography #54

  3. Encyclopedia Wikipedia. "Mahjong tiles." cross-check checked 2026-10-01

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

    AI summary Dates the dragon tiles: whites from replacement tiles, reds circa 1870, greens by 1890, with inner-flower jokers surviving in Vietnam.

    for this variant Explains the framed copies and gives 32 jokers, or 36 with the alternate honour jokers. The 'after 1975' date is unsourced. Its account of the hexagon frame and the nhị khẩu matches the unsigned 'Current trends' document on Sloperama, which traces the hexagon only to 2009 and may be its source

    Also cited on: Proto-mahjong, Nanyang variants, Malaysian 4-player, Vietnamese classical · bibliography #102

  4. Encyclopedia Vietnamese Wikipedia: Mạt chược. cross-check checked 2026-10-01

    https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BA%A1t_ch%C6%B0%E1%BB%A3c

    AI summary The Vietnamese article on mahjong, which describes the Vietnamese game in Vietnamese terms: the 160-tile set with its 'frame' jokers (khung), the play, the penalties, and the named hands with their values in phán and mủn. Tagged as unsourced.

    for this variant The independent Vietnamese account of the multi-khung sets, with the nhị khẩu. It also says the sets changed play: seven pairs is left out because most now play with many khung sets. Unsourced

    Also cited on: Vietnamese classical · bibliography #185

  5. Guide McGill Students' Mahjong Club. "A Quick Look at Mahjong around the World: Vietnamese Mahjong." McGill Mahjong (blog), August 2015. cross-check checked 2026-10-01

    http://mcgillmahjong.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-quick-look-at-mahjong-around-world_6.html

    AI summary A student club's summary of the Vietnamese game for players of other styles: the tile set, the jokers, the bonus tiles and what little the author could find on scoring.

    for this variant A third account of the framed copies, giving the 176-tile form. Its wording (circle, rectangle, diamond) and its images follow Sloperama, so it is close to Sloper's rules document rather than independent of it

    Also cited on: Vietnamese classical · bibliography #186

  6. Commercial Chop Suey Club. "Ivory White Tile Vietnamese Mahjong Set." Product listing. cross-check checked 2026-10-01

    https://www.chopsueyclub.com/products/ivory-white-tile-vietnamese-mahjong-set

    AI summary A US retailer's listing for a Vietnamese mahjong set, giving its tile contents.

    for this variant What a US retailer sells as a Vietnamese set today: the classical 160, not the modern 176.

    Only cited here · bibliography #188

  7. Guide Sloper, Tom. "Rules for Mah-Jongg - Vietnamese Style." Word document, Sloperama downloads folder (file dated 24 February 2023). cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://sloperama.com/downlode/mahjongg/Vietnamese_Mah-Jongg_Rules.doc

    AI summary Sloper's write-up of the Vietnamese game, based on rules from a Vietnamese-American friend who plays with 176 tiles. It covers the 160 and 176-tile sets, the uses of the jokers and the kings and queens, the No Flowers - No Leaves hand, payment in pha'n and mu'n, and a scoring chart the friend supplied.

    for this variant The only rules text found for play with the 176-tile set, and it comes from a player who uses that set. It shows the extra jokers playing like the classical eight but scoring by frame. Sloperama's, so not independent of the chart's source, and it rests on one unnamed informant

    Also cited on: Vietnamese classical · bibliography #479

  8. Guide Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 7-EJ: Those Mysterious Special Joker Tiles That Come in Some Mah-Jongg Sets." Sloperama. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

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

    AI summary Sloper's FAQ on joker tiles, built from reader correspondence. It reprints his 2001 bulletin-board account of the 160-tile Vietnamese set, giving the eight jokers' Vietnamese names and his own guesses at the rules. It also reprints Michael Stanwick (2012) on Changsha 王麻雀 and Raymond Lee (2016, 2019) on Vietnamese jokers in Hong Kong sets.

    for this variant Gives the 184-tile form and the alternate jokers that make 188. It is the only statement found on where joker-heavy sets still sell (Canada, Australia), and that is second-hand, from a Hong Kong dealer. Sloperama correspondence, so not independent

    Also cited on: Vietnamese classical · bibliography #478

  9. Guide "Current Trends in Vietnamese and Japanese Tiles." Unsigned Word document, hosted at Sloperama, last saved June 2016. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://www.sloperama.com/downlode/mahjongg/Current%20trends%20in%20Vietnamese%20and%20Japanese%20tiles.doc

    AI summary A collector's illustrated note on the growing number of jokers in Vietnamese sets: four frames, the hexagon frame, half frames of nhị khẩu and 番 honour jokers. It also covers red dora tiles in Japanese sets and has a table of tile counts by variant that gives 188 for modern Vietnamese. Its figures match those Raymond Lee sent Sloper in June 2016.

    for this variant The fullest account of how the joker count kept rising after the 176-tile set: hexagon frames by 2009, then half frames. A collector's observations from photographs and wikis, hosted by Sloperama

    Only cited here · bibliography #485

  10. Rulebook [Anonymous.] "Bài mạt chược" (the 'Edward' Vietnamese mahjong rules), undated booklet, with English translation and notes by Bridget Young. PDF, Sloperama downloads folder (file dated 20 July 2026). cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://sloperama.com/downlode/mahjongg/Vietnamese%20%28Edward%29%20Mahjong%20Translation%20Bridget%20Y.pdf

    AI summary A Vietnamese rule booklet for the 160-tile game, with the translation on the facing column. It covers the eight khung jokers and the flowers, seating, dealing, claiming, the winning hand, payment tables in phán and mủn, and penalties. The translator adds notes, a comparison with the modern game and a reference to Nguyễn Xuân Mai's 1950 guide. Hosted by Sloperama but not written by Sloper.

    for this variant Sets the multi-frame game's values beside an older one-set sheet. It gives the same frame-dependent value for Tổng with Hợp as Sloper's informant, and shows No Flowers, No Leaves surviving at a higher value. A different author but hosted by Sloperama, so not counted as independent here

    Also cited on: Vietnamese classical · bibliography #480

  11. Guide de Bodard, Aliette. "Help with deciphering mah jong tiles?" Blog post, aliettedebodard.com, 24 October 2011, with comments. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://www.aliettedebodard.com/2011/10/24/help-with-deciphering-mah-jong-tiles/

    AI summary The novelist asks readers to identify the extra tiles in a Vietnamese set bought in Vietnam. A French commenter who plays the Vietnamese game regularly explains the jokers ('rois') and the three-point minimum for going out.

    for this variant Diaspora evidence from France, and evidence that a set bought in Vietnam around 2011 had one joker set. Nothing on multi-frame sets

    Only cited here · bibliography #486

  12. Guide Thủ Thuật Chơi. "Hướng dẫn cách chơi Mạt chược." thuthuatchoi.com, n.d. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://thuthuatchoi.com/huong-dan-cach-choi-mat-chuoc.html

    AI summary A Vietnamese how-to page on mạt chược: the 160-tile set with one khung set, the jokers in blue and red groups, and the winning hand. Unsigned and undated.

    for this variant A typical Vietnamese how-to page. The set the Vietnamese web presents as standard is the 160-tile one, with no mention of several khung sets; dangnho.com and thegioiboardgame.vn say the same. Unsigned and undated

    Only cited here · bibliography #487

  13. Commercial Mahjong Pros. "Beginner's Guide to Southern Vietnamese Mahjong." Mahjong Pros (retailer's blog). cross-check checked 2026-10-01

    https://mahjongpros.com/blogs/how-to-play/beginners-guide-to-vietnamese-mahjong

    AI summary A mahjong-set retailer's rules for the Vietnamese game as played in the South: the 160-tile set and its jokers, the deal, calls in Vietnamese terms, and scoring in phán and mủn with a payment table.

    for this variant A current English-language rules text that knows nothing of the modern set.

    Also cited on: Vietnamese classical · bibliography #187

  14. Forum Bradfield, Julian. "mah-jong tiles (was: Emoji: emoticons vs. literacy)." Unicode mailing list, 6 January 2009. cross-check checked 2026-10-10

    https://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2009-m01/0138.html

    AI summary A mahjong researcher objects to the Unicode encoding of mahjong tiles, arguing that the encoded set leaves out most players' tiles. His examples are the animal flowers, the baida joker and the Vietnamese 'complex range of ranked and suited jokers'.

    for this variant A dated outside mention (January 2009) of Vietnamese jokers as a family of their own. Gives no count and does not separate the modern sets from the classical one

    Only cited here · bibliography #488

AI-generated

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
catalogued listed in a variant catalogue with tile counts and hand sizes, but no rules text verified
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.

SourceTilesHandFlowersScoringPayout
[1]176 or more large tiles13, out on 14flowers/seasons, 8 kings/queens, and 24 or more jokersbased on the 19 ways of going Outwinner only
[2]176 or 184————
[3]after 1975, modern sets triplicate or quadruplicate all eight jokers, each copy in a different frame (rectangle, circle, lozenge, hexagon) so that they can be melded together: 32 jokers, 36 with the alternative honour jokers————
[4]before 1975, 160 tiles with one set of jokers; 'now common sets have up to four sets of khung, sometimes four and a half', which adds four nhị khẩu tiles—with two or more khung sets, one to four nhị khẩu tiles (marked 喜 and 元 together) stand for hỷ or nguyên——
[5]176: 'in modern Vietnamese Mahjong sets, three copies of each Joker are used', one framed with a circle, one with a rectangle, one with a diamond————
[6]168 tiles: 108 suited, 28 honours, 8 flowers, 8 Emperors and Empresses, 8 jokers, and 8 replacement tiles, with 2 blanks————
[1]176 or more large tiles13, out on 14flowers/seasons, 8 kings/queens, and 24 or more jokersbased on the 19 ways of going Outwinner only
[7]The 144-tile set plus 8 kings and queens and either 8 or 24 jokers, so 160 or 176 tiles. In the 176-tile set the eight jokers are triplicated, each set outlined by circles, rectangles or diamonds. Some players add a 177th tile, a combined wind-and-dragon joker, and makers then add an extra Big Flower. With 176 tiles the walls are 22 stacks long13, dealer 14. A joker may be laid down for points and replaced, or kept in the hand as a wild tileEight jokers in two colour groups: Emperor (Tổng, any tile); Lord of Dots, Bams and Craks (Thùng, Soọc, Màn); General (Hợp, any suit tile); Lord of Winds (Hỷ); Dragon Lady (Nguyên); Big Flower (Đại Hoa, any flower). The kings and queens are ordinary seat flowersPhán, with 6 phán to a mủn. A complete group of four jokers of one colour in one frame earns 1 mủn. Emperor and General laid down before play score 12 phán (2 mủn) if of the same frame and 9 phán if of mixed frames. No Flowers, No Leaves is worth 3 mủn, and discarding three blue jokers wins outright. Great Four Happiness is 8 mủn at the informant's clubOnly the winner is paid, by all players. The discarder pays double up to 5 phán; at a mủn the discarder pays three times the 5-phán value and the others two times
[4]Now common sets carry up to four khung sets, sometimes four and a half, which adds four nhị khẩu tiles. The article itself describes only the basic set with one khung set and 160 tilesThe seven-pairs hand (pair-pair) is not introduced, because most players now use sets with many khung sets—Tổng and Hợp laid down at the start score 9 phán, and 6 if laid down later. Phóng hoa: discarding three flowers wins for 1 mủn, and in many places three khung count instead. Three blue khung win without the hand being clear of honours—
[8]Modern Vietnamese sets can have 188 tiles, of which 184 are used, the other four being alternate jokers (Raymond Lee, June 2016)————
[9]Its table gives 188 for modern Vietnamese (136, 16 flowers, 36 special jokers) against 160 for classic Vietnamese. It shows four-frame sets, with the hexagon as the newest frame, and four-and-a-half-frame sets that add nhị khẩu honour jokers—Reports a single-character 番 honour joker taking the place of the nhị khẩu, and suggests that flower jokers are becoming less popular——
[10]The sheet itself gives 160 tiles with 8 khung in blue and red sets——The translator's table compares the sheet with the modern game. Tổng and Hợp at the start: 9 phán in the sheet, 2 mủn modern (9 phán if of different frames). No Flowers, No Leaves: 1 mủn in the sheet, 2 mủn modern (1 mủn if only one set of jokers is used). Seven pairs: 1 mủn in the sheet, 1 phán modern. Big Four Winds: 4 mủn in the sheet, 8 mủn modernThe translator notes that dealer-doubling was still standard in 1950 (citing Nguyên Xuân Mai) and that discarder-doubling dominates today
[11]A set bought in Vietnam: 152 tiles plus 16 extra, which the commenter identifies as eight jokers ('rois') and eight numbered tiles——The commenter says a player needs at least 3 points, in the hand or laid aside, to go out—
[12]The basic set 'today' has four groups plus one khung, 160 tiles, with the eight khung in blue and red groups————
  • [2] describes the modern variant as triplicating or quadruplicating the jokers, which gives 176 or 184 rather than Sloperama's open-ended '176 or more'
  • [3] The framed copies are what makes 176 (three of each) or 184 (four of each)
  • [13] Read at the source. Describes only the 160-tile set, with one copy of each joker, as the set needed for 'South Vietnamese Mahjong'
  • [6] Read at the source. That is the 160-tile classical set with spares, not a set with multiplied jokers
  • [1] Re-read on 2026-10-10 and unchanged since 2026-09-18. The entry asks for information on expatriate variants in Montreal, France and Houston. The log dates the entry to 2 February 2002. The book list says the rules are given in FAQ 7e, but FAQ 7e as read today has none; the rules are in Sloper's separate Word document
  • [7] Sloper's own text plus long sections written by a Vietnamese-American friend who uses 176 tiles. The friend notes there are no strict rules for the extra jokers. Sloper says players in Southern California play differently from those in Texas and Virginia, and disowns the scoring chart. The Word file was created on 12 July 2003 and last saved on 9 June 2010
  • [4] Revision 74531327, read through the API on 2026-10-10. The article uses 'bộ khung' both for four tiles (two before 1975 make 160) and for eight (one in the 160-tile basic set), so 'four khung sets' means 184 tiles only on the second reading. It agrees with Sloper's informant on the outright win from discarding three blue jokers. Its 9 phán for Tổng with Hợp is the value Sloper's text gives for jokers of mixed frames
  • [8] Also reprints Sloper's 2001 post on the 160-tile set, with Vietnamese joker names from Chuong Bui Van (1998), and his advice to make a Vietnamese set from two ordinary sets with labels. Raymond Lee reported in 2019, after visiting Hong Kong dealers, that the Vietnamese jokers reached Hong Kong in altered form. A dealer told him such jokers had fallen out of fashion there but were still popular in Canada and Australia
  • [9] Unsigned. Its 188-tile figure matches what Raymond Lee sent Sloper in June 2016 (FAQ 7-EJ). The Word file stores its text as UTF-16, so a plain-text reading of the URL may not find the quotes. A converted copy is kept in the scratch directory
  • [10] An undated Vietnamese rule sheet with Bridget Young's parallel translation and notes, which draw on a Vietnamese informant and on Nguyên Xuân Mai (1950). The server's date for the PDF is 20 July 2026
  • [11] A French commenter (29 November 2011) plays the Vietnamese game very regularly and finds it faster than the traditional game
  • [14] Arguing against the Unicode mahjong encoding, Bradfield lists the Vietnamese 'complex range of ranked and suited jokers' among the tiles the proposal ignored

Reading it

The sources agree on what makes the modern set: the classical eight khung repeated in three, four or more copies, each copy framed differently (circle, rectangle, diamond, later hexagon) so that the frame sets can be told apart. Sloperama's FAQ 2b gives 176 or more tiles with 24 or more jokers. Sloper's rules document (2003) gives 176 with 24. FAQ 7-EJ and the unsigned 'Current trends' document give 188-tile sets with 184 in use. Vietnamese Wikipedia, the independent source, gives up to four or four and a half khung sets. The chart's open-ended '176+ tiles, 24+ jokers' is right; Wikipedia's '176 or 184' is too narrow. On rules, Sloper's Vietnamese-American informant and Bridget Young's comparison show the extra jokers playing as before but scoring by frame: a full colour group in one frame earns a mủn, and Tổng with Hợp is worth more when the frames match. Vietnamese Wikipedia adds that seven pairs is dropped where many khung sets are used. Play abroad is reported in California, Texas, Virginia, Houston, Montreal, France, Canada and Australia, mostly at second hand. Datable evidence starts in 2002. All the rules evidence is in English and hosted by Sloperama. Still wanted: Vietnamese-language rules, a maker's or seller's listing, and any source for the 'after 1975' date.

Looked for, not found

  • Official rules No body governs the Vietnamese game in Vietnam or abroad. No federation or league rules for the multi-frame game were found in the English, Vietnamese and French searches of 2026-10-10
  • Tournament rules No tournament of Vietnamese mahjong was found; play is in homes, clubs and Facebook groups, and Sloper's informant mentions only his own club
  • Law Vietnam's gambling law (Penal Code 2015 art. 321; Decree 144/2021/NĐ-CP art. 28, per search results) covers all games played for money and does not name mạt chược. vbpl.vn returned a script-drawn shell and thuvienphapluat.vn refuses automated readers. No diaspora jurisdiction regulates the game by name
  • Historical No source written when the multi-frame sets appeared was found. The earliest dated statements are Sloper's FAQ 2b entry (2 February 2002) and his rules document (July 2003). The Wikipedias' 'after 1975' is unsourced; the 'Current trends' document traces the hexagon frame to 2009
  • Scholarship No scholarly work on the multi-frame sets was found. Stanwick and Xu (2008) and Ebashi treat only the eight jokers (see Vietnamese classical), and Internet Archive full-text search found only Sfetcu's compilation
  • Journalism Vietnamese press queries (Sài Gòn xưa, Chợ Lớn, hải ngoại, Little Saigon) returned nothing on mạt chược, and no diaspora press article was found in English or French. Two Hong Kong pieces, Next Magazine (2003) and Wen Wei Po (2008), are leads in the citations note
  • Organisation No association of Vietnamese mahjong players was found; players organise in Facebook groups, which are behind a login
  • Collection No museum or library catalogue record of a 176- to 188-tile Vietnamese set turned up in any search of this pass; the multi-frame sets in the sources are collectors' photographs on Sloperama

Known, not yet read

Sources that look worth having but could not be read for this entry. If you can reach one, it can be read and added. Every variant’s list is gathered on Missing sources.

  • Rulebook Any Vietnamese-language rules for play with three or four joker sets — The rules found for the multi-frame game are in English, from one Vietnamese-American informant on Sloperama and a translator's comparison table. No Vietnamese text sets out the frame bonuses or the changed values (seven pairs, No Flowers, No Leaves)
    Where: Rule sheets sold with sets; Vietnamese-American and Vietnamese clubs and Facebook groups; Vietnamese e-commerce listings. Tried: Vietnamese queries through the general search tool on 2026-10-10 found only 160-tile how-to pages. Cốc Cốc needs JavaScript and Facebook is behind a login, both the sites' own barriers; Bing returned a degraded page to the script
  • Commercial Sellers' or makers' listings of 176-, 184- or 188-tile Vietnamese sets (Shopee, Lazada, Tiki in Vietnam; Walmart, eBay, Etsy, desertcart abroad) — A seller's tile count would confirm and date the multi-frame sets independently of Sloperama and Wikipedia. The two sets read so far (Chop Suey Club, Mahjong Pros) are 160-tile classical sets
    Where: tiki.vn, shopee.vn, lazada.vn; walmart.com item 5233532551 (a 164-tile 'Chinese Vietnamese' set); desertcart product 106610436 'Vietnamese mahjong set'. Tried: On 2026-10-10 Tiki's API answered 403, Walmart a robot check, eBay 403, and desertcart and Etsy a challenge page, all refusals by the sites themselves

Where it was searched

Every place the search checklist names for this variant’s languages, and what each gave, including nothing. The last full pass was on 2026-10-10.

Names searched: English Vietnamese mahjong, Vietnamese Modern, modern Vietnamese mahjong, Vietnamese mah-jongg, Vietnamese style mah-jongg; Vietnamese mạt chược, mạt chược Việt Nam, bài mạt chược, mat chuoc.

19 places searched
  • General web search — Standard WebSearch, 2026-10-10. English queries: 'Vietnamese mahjong set 184 tiles jokers', '"Vietnamese" mahjong set "176 tiles"', '"Vietnamese-style mahjong" jokers', '"32 jokers" OR "24 jokers"', and a Sloperama-specific query. French: '"mah-jong vietnamien" OR "mahjong vietnamien" règles jokers'. Vietnamese: 'mạt chược 4 bộ khung 184 lá', 'mạt chược "184 lá" OR "176 quân"', 'khung tròn khung vuông khung thoi', plus app, press, diaspora and law queries. One extended query was run in Vietnamese ('bộ mạt chược 3 khung 4 khung bán ... khung lục giác'). The searches surfaced the Sloperama documents (the rules .doc, the 'Current trends' .doc, the Edward translation), de Bodard's 2011 post and Bradfield's 2009 Unicode post, all read. The Vietnamese how-to pages they surfaced (thuthuatchoi, dangnho, thegioiboardgame 2024, cge.edu.vn, mylop.edu.vn, algoil.uk.com) all give the 160-tile set. Found but not read: eathealthy365 'A Comparison of Mahjong Set Variations' (low quality) and makerworld.com model 2552655 (Cloudflare challenge). Nothing on the multi-frame sets outside Sloperama and the Wikipedias.
  • Wikidata — Not reached. wbsearchentities answered 429 (too many requests) on 2026-10-10 after one partial reply, which matched 'mạt chược' only to Q12263 (mahjong). No separate item for Vietnamese mahjong was found; the Wikipedias treat the Vietnamese game inside their general mahjong articles.
  • Wikipedia, in every declared language — Vietnamese Wikipedia 'Mạt chược' (revision 74531327) was read through the API, 2026-10-10: the multi-khung passage, the seven-pairs remark and the khung scoring. The English and Chinese Wikipedia tiles articles (existing references) give the same unsourced 'after 1975' framed-copies account. Chinese Wikipedia has no article 越南麻雀 (API: missingtitle). French Wikipedia 'Mah-jong' was not checked: the API answered 429 on 2026-10-10.
  • The sources' own references, and who cites them — Backward, one round. FAQ 2b led to FAQ 7e and 7-EJ and to Sloper's Vietnamese rules document, all read. FAQ 7-EJ credits Chuong Bui Van (1998), Raymond Lee (2016, 2019) and Thierry Depaulis. The 'Current trends' document cites Vietnamese and Cantonese Wikipedia and a 2008 Chinese blog. The Edward translation's notes cite Nguyên Xuân Mai (1950), already wanted under Vietnamese classical. Leads for a second round, unread: Cantonese Wikipedia on the 番 joker; the 2008 Chinese blog pictured in 'Current trends'; Wen Wei Po, 20 April 2008, '論盡麻雀文化·各地麻雀睇眞啲：3.越南麻雀' (hidden in Chinese Wikipedia as unreliable); Next Magazine, 24 September 2003 (wanted under classical); Ying Fat Cheung, the Hong Kong dealer Raymond Lee interviewed. Forward citation not attempted: none of these sources is indexed by the scholarly indexes.
  • Internet Archive full-text search — Advanced search for 'vietnamese mahjong', 'mạt chược', 'mat chuoc' and 'mah-jong vietnamien' (2026-10-10) gave one hit, a music upload. Full-text search for 'vietnamese mahjong' in texts gave two hits, both in Sfetcu's 'A Gambling Guide', which repeats Wikipedia's '16 different kinds of joker'. Nothing on the multi-frame sets.
  • Wayback Machine — CDX queries for the Sloperama Vietnamese documents, to date their first captures, failed three times on 2026-10-10: web.archive.org reset the connection through the proxy, a failure on our side rather than a refusal. The documents' own dates were used instead: the rules .doc's metadata (created 12 July 2003, last saved 9 June 2010) and the server dates (rules .doc and 'Current trends' 25 February 2023, Edward PDF 20 July 2026).
  • Google Books — Not searched: the API answered 429 in earlier passes, and FAQ 2b says there are no books in English on the Vietnamese game. No book on the multi-frame sets is known.
  • HathiTrust full-text search — Not searched: full-text search is behind a Cloudflare challenge, and the multi-frame sets postdate 1975, later than anything HathiTrust shows in full view.
  • WorldCat — Not searched: no book on the modern Vietnamese game is known. The one Vietnamese-game book the sources name, Nguyen Xuan Mai (Haiphong, 1950), predates the multi-frame sets and is wanted under Vietnamese classical.
  • Scholarly indexes — Not searched: OpenAlex wants a key and answered 429 in earlier passes, and no source read cites scholarship on the post-1975 sets. Stanwick and Xu (2008) treat only the pedigree of the eight jokers.
  • YouTube — YouTube search for 'cách chơi mạt chược khung' (2026-10-10) returned Vietnamese tutorials, mostly on Hong Kong, Japanese and game tie-in mahjong. The series 'DẠY CHƠI MẠT CHƯỢC CHO NGƯỜI MỚI BẮT ĐẦU' (videos KXDdHDf7by4, 79-RYucbGPs) could not be opened: the watch pages answered with Google's CAPTCHA. An earlier English query ('vietnamese mahjong jokers') returned Filipino joker games and an unboxing of a 1920s-30s Vietnamese set. Nothing read.
  • English-language forums — Not searched directly: Reddit answers 403 and BoardGameGeek a challenge. A search hit on a Reddit mirror (reddit.sudovanilla.org) mentioned a player in Europe looking for a Vietnamese set with 160 tiles and 16 jokers; not read. Julian Bradfield's 2009 Unicode mailing-list post was read as the forum source.
  • Mahjong reference sites — Sloperama read for this node: FAQ 2b (entry, book list, log), FAQ 7e (nothing on the modern set beyond Stanwick's letters), FAQ 7-EJ, Sloper's 'Rules For Mah-Jongg - Vietnamese Style', the 'Current trends in Vietnamese and Japanese tiles' document and Bridget Young's translation of the Edward sheet. None is independent of the chart. The Mahjong Wiki's site search for 'vietnamese' (2026-10-10) found nothing.
  • App and platform listings — iTunes Search API (2026-10-10), terms 'mạt chược', 'mat chuoc' and 'vietnamese mahjong', in the VN and US stores: no app for the Vietnamese game. The results were solitaire, Hong Kong, Guangdong and Japanese apps. Google Play has no open search API and was not searched; general web queries for Vietnamese mahjong apps returned only gambling promotions.
  • English-language newspaper archives — Not searched: the listed archives either refuse automated readers (Chronicling America, Papers Past, BNA, NewspaperSG) or cover periods before the post-1975 sets (Chronicling America ends in 1963). Trove could hold Australian Vietnamese-community reports and is a lead for a later pass.
  • Statutes published in English — Not searched: the game is not regulated by name in any of the listed English-language jurisdictions (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines), and its diaspora play is private.
  • Vietnamese web — Cốc Cốc answers with a JavaScript cookie redirect, its own mechanism. The general search tool stood in for it with Vietnamese queries (see web-search). Bing was tried but returns a degraded page that ignores the query when read by a script. The Vietnamese how-to pages read or seen (thuthuatchoi.com, dangnho.com, thegioiboardgame.vn, cge.edu.vn, mylop.edu.vn) give the 160-tile set with one khung set, and none mentions three or four. Tiki's product API answered 403; Shopee and Lazada were not tried (login walls). Facebook groups, where much play is organised, are behind a login.
  • Vietnamese statutes — vbpl.vn is drawn by script and returned an empty shell (2026-10-10). A web search on 'mạt chược' with 'đánh bạc xử phạt nghị định' returned only general gambling law (Penal Code 2015 art. 321; Decree 144/2021/NĐ-CP art. 28), which does not name mạt chược. thuvienphapluat.vn refuses automated readers. Nothing read at the source.
  • French-language archives — Not searched: Gallica's Indochina press ends before the multi-frame sets appeared after 1975. The only French source found for the modern period is a 2011 blog comment (de Bodard). Gallica is a lead for Vietnamese classical (Nguyen Xuan Mai, Haiphong 1950).

In the tree

Descends from Vietnamese classical, as the source chart draws it.

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