Interview with Curator Sharona Saltzman

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After learning several forms of mahjong, traveling to China with my daughter, and presenting a pop-up exhibition at a New York museum, I fell deeper in love with the game and the people who play it. Everywhere I went, I met individuals with remarkable stories, and I wanted to capture and share them. This book became a way to bring those voices together.

Mahjong brings people together across generations, cultures, and backgrounds. Wherever it is played, the tiles spark connection, conversation, and lasting friendships. Players often form lifelong bonds around the table, and communities grow through shared games, teaching, and tournaments. The book celebrates these connections and the people behind them, showing how the game has a unique ability to unite individuals from very different walks of life. That idea is what inspired the title, Tiles That Unite. 

I called synagogues, churches, universities, clubs, and libraries. I also found players through word of mouth, personal networks, tournaments, teachers, and community groups. I chose people with a real love for the game across its many styles, and I made sure to include players from all fifty states to show how widely mahjong is played across the country. 

My goal was for every page to feel like a small portrait of the player behind it. I approached each spread as a visual story, combining imagery, pacing, and negative space to let the player’s personality come through. While every page is unique, I was intentional about maintaining visual harmony across the book so the reader experiences it as a cohesive whole rather than a collection of unrelated pages.

The book was intentionally designed without page numbers or a table of contents. The goal was for it to feel exploratory and immersive, allowing readers to discover each person organically rather than navigating directly to a specific page. Including a traditional table of contents would have disrupted the flow and sense of discovery that define the book’s design. 

I felt deeply connected to the players by the end of the project. Through their stories and photos, I came to feel like I genuinely knew all 159 of them, almost like friends. Even though I’ve never met any of them in person, their personalities came through so clearly that the experience felt incredibly personal.