TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former arms dealer Kuo Hsi (郭璽) announced his bid to found the “Mahjong the Greatest Party” on Thursday (Sept. 8), citing the benefits of playing mahjong and vowing to de-stigmatize the game.

During the party’s founding press conference, former legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) said while he was still in office, he received many appeals from Kuo, whose mahjong parlor would be reported to the authorities as many as over 20 times a month despite being a legal business. Chen said mahjong, like many games, is looked down upon for its association with gambling, and players who are forced into hiding become sources of "social issues."

Kuo said he initially joined the mahjong parlor business to host the elderly who enjoy the pastime. “It turned out that after we took over, the police conducted 27 inspections within a month. At the most, there were inspections in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, three in one day. On one of those inspections, 18 officers came; there were only about eight seniors playing mahjong in our parlor.”

The phenomenon felt unjust to Kuo, and after researching the matter, he found that mahjong was deemed a form of gambling during the martial law period. He said even today, people automatically think of gambling when mahjong is mentioned.

Kuo said his past attempts to fight stigmatization by establishing associations did little, which led him to believe the only effective way to change things is by founding a political party. If the Ministry of the Interior does approve the party’s establishment, it would prove that there is systemic discrimination against mahjong, he added.

The ultimate goal of the party is to normalize mahjong as a social activity, especially for the elderly. “If we’re able to provide a clean, healthy, safe environment, wouldn’t it be better than playing in basements, dark corners, or dubious locations?”