AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 PLAYS: CHINA
Words by Chad Wilkinson
In the very first outing of our trip around the world, we stopped off at the island nation state of Taiwan. Today we take a deeper look at mainland China; a vast country which strangely lacks the level of tabletop esteem held by its smaller neighbour Taiwan, but nonetheless possesses an influential and ongoing gaming culture.
China is the birthplace of Wei Qi, commonly known as ‘Go’. This historic game believed to be over 4,000 years old, is so engrained in Chinese culture that it forms one of the four arts requiring mastery by the ancient Chinese scholar-gentlemen, alongside calligraphy, painting, and the qin seven-stringed instrument. Many suggest that it was conceived as a fortune telling device, with its mechanics of surrounding player pieces representative of the universe’s relationship with individuals. Even by today’s standards that’s a pretty lofty theme, especially for an abstract game. Go is a two player game consisting of opposing sets of black and white stones and a large nineteen by nineteen grid. Taking turns placing one stone at a time, players attempt to remove their opponent’s pieces from the board by surrounding them, with the player occupying the most ‘territory’ becoming the winner. Despite often being described as one of the hardest games to master, Go is still played today all over the world, be that on the traditional tabletop, the internet, or mobile phones.