Pai Gow being first adapted into a casino game in Las Vegas and now spreading back to Asia, struck me like a bolt, to discover that the uncouth proponents of the adaptation were enamoured to the bathwater and threw the hallowed baby out. A slightly perverse twist to the English Maxim: "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater".
This is how it feels to a traditional-conscious Chinaman like myself who has an inkling passed down verbally to me by my Dad of the rich meanings and historical importance of Pai Gow.
Apparently, the casino business in the 1980s was waning in Vegas and an innovative casino owner dabbled with the idea of introducing new games to boost business. He had numerous Chinese customers and friends from nearby San Francisco. Together they set up an American version of Pai Gow reduced to its simplest form. It has now become popular in casinos all over the world.
Of course, it is a gambling frolic of the Chinese, too. As a Chinese realist, I would unapologetically confess that Chinese culture ostentatiously revolve around money (see post: Minor Conversation). For motivational endeavours to bear fruits, money must always be in the pot. That's how the didactic properties of Pai Gow could be cogently used to spread and build fundamental character and attitude of the widely scattered Chinese masses.
Chinese are comfortable with being super wealthy and make no bones about flaunting their wealth. Chinese Proverbs sing high praises about the might and joy of wealth. Jack Ma is openly adored and envied. We are, indeed, pretty puzzled as to why Westerners are so pretentious about wealth.
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife upon the birth of their daughter pledged US$ 45 billion to charity. Many Chinese till today are still troubled and reeling from speculations whether his wife, a Chinese, agreed to it and, if so, how on earth did Mark CONvince her. As it turned out, however, as exposed by a NYT writer it is not exactly a charity yet, but an arrangement that has a tax benefit angle and phenomenal philanthropic publicity.
Western ideologies and values stemmed mainly from religious teachings tend to cast bad light on wealth. Common admonitions:"it's easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than a rich man the kingdom of ....", "the love of money is the root of all evil" and such like. Yet, amongst the richest Western institutions in the world is a religious establishment at the fount of spreading these messages. Western hypocrisy simply never fails to overwhelm us, Chinese.
According to known records, Pai Gow started during the Song Dynasty which places it at 1,000 years old. My Dad contended that it could have been almost 5,000 years old, give a millennium or two. It was Song scholars who first recorded the game officially.
Those days the peasant Chinese were mostly illiterate and the pedagogue function of Pai Gow encouraged the spreading of the philosophies imbued in the game at an infectious rate throughout the Chinese Empire and vassal states like Vietnam.
Today, the banal version of the game, fit only for gaming, rakes in billions for the casinos with no recognition for the significance and value of the meaning and symbolism behind the game.
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