Pulling faces

Inspired by another of Kuroki-pro’s notes! If you read Japanese, subscribe here!

A ‘poker face’ is a bit of a misnomer because if you’ve ever watched a poker game, there is a lot of emotion on those faces. Not all of it real and sometimes it only shows in between hands but there are plenty of opportunities for a poker player to tell the audience how they’re feeling.

Professional-level mahjong on the other hand expressly discourages it.

My view on the reasons for this are two fold:

(1) Shared community cards in Texas Hold ‘em. That shared experience creates a more obvious forum for sharing of emotion.

(2) The need to telegraph information true or false. This can be done through facial expression or even the lack of it.

The culture of mahjong has developed such that there is an emphasis that you should be getting all of your information from the table and not from the small quirks of your opponents. Not everyone agrees that this should be rule, especially outside of Japan.

Here is probably where we make a sweeping comment about Japanese people hiding their emotions but I come from Britain, the land of understatement and pushing those feelings deep deep down inside. We don’t seem to share this attitude that faces should be impenetrable walls of nothing even in mahjong. UK events have all our British emotions: nervous laughter, wry smiles, sympathetic glances etc. So I don’t buy that this is a peculiarly Japanese problem. It’s an accepted culture that had been built on with consensus for good reason.

Having been trained in Japan, I tend to err towards the blank face. But probably simply due to peer pressure. Kuroki’s article neatly summarises why that is the best approach.

(1) Facial expressions could be ‘shamisen’ or an attempt to convey untrue information or distract

(2) It could reveal true information

(3) It could make someone feel uncomfortable

This loops back into how mahjong should be played for what is going on at the table and not your ability to deceive. And on the flip side, perfecting that ‘poker face’ ensure you don’t telegraph information that you would rather keep secret.

I have a personal experience at one EMA event where a player would lean forward and stare in my face everytime I drew a tile. That sure as hell made me uncomfortable. That’s an extreme example but it’s hard to anticipate what will make someone uncomfortable when we’re playing with people from a diverse range of cultures.

Now… Does this mean Japan is always really good at unreadable expressions. Looking at the photos, evidently not.

I suppose this leads into the essential problem that we are human and we can’t always control our expressions. And as a pack animal, we’re very honed in on reading each other even when we’re not saying anything.

Enforcement is a real problem, though. Kuroki-pro later in his article suggests that if the situation deteriorates too far, they may have to consider mandatory face masks. I think we can all agree we don’t want to go back to those times!

The answer is probably that we need to keep ourselves in check. Warn your club mates if you see a bad habit arising especially around that riichi trigger point!

What is my habit? I pout my lips when I think really hard like I’m trying to take a selfie in the early 00s… I’m trying to stop. Promise.