Mahjiku › Mahjong variants › Singaporean vs Taiwanese
Singaporean and Taiwanese mahjong differ above all in how a hand is scored: Singaporean counts in fan/tai (doubling) (exponential doubling with a house-configurable minimum and limit), Taiwanese in tai (台) (additive tai-counting, no exponential doubling). Beyond the scoring, the tile sets are different sizes (148 against 144), and a winning hand is 13 tiles against 16. Both are played by 4 players, and the everyday consequence is that a hand worth a lot at one table can be worth very little at the other.
How Singaporean and Taiwanese mahjong differ — the tile set, the hand, and above all how each one is scored.
| Singaporean | Taiwanese | |
|---|---|---|
| Also called | Singapore Mahjong | 臺灣麻將 |
| Played in | Singapore, Malaysia | Taiwan, diaspora communities |
| Tiles | 148 | 144 |
| Flowers | 4 flowers + 4 seasons, plus 4 unique animal tiles (Cat, Rat, Rooster, Centipede) forming two predator-prey pairs | 4 flowers + 4 seasons; drawn flowers are exposed and replaced from the wall, scoring bonus tai outside the hand |
| Jokers | none | none |
| Hand size | 13 | 16 |
| Scored in | fan/tai (doubling) | tai (台) |
| Scoring system | exponential doubling with a house-configurable minimum and limit | additive tai-counting, no exponential doubling |
| Learning curve | intermediate | intermediate |
Singaporean. Singaporean mahjong plays much like Hong Kong mahjong with a 148-tile set (144 plus four unique animal bonus tiles) and doubling-based scoring whose minimum and limit vary by house rule.
Taiwanese. Taiwanese mahjong is defined by its 16-tile hand (17-tile win: 5 sets + a pair), flowers drawn and replaced into play for bonus tai, and an additive, largely uncapped tai scoring system.
Last updated: 2026-08-27.
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