Author bio

Wei Liang — Founder & Production Lead

I run the factory floor in Shenzhen where every Mahjong Market set is molded, engraved, and packed. I write these articles so buyers can verify quality without flying here.

How I got into mahjong manufacturing

Before mahjong, I spent eight years running injection molding lines for consumer electronics in Shenzhen — phone cases, kitchen tools, small plastic parts. In 2017 a US client asked if I could source American mahjong tiles. I bought a sample set online and was shocked: the tiles were stickered (not engraved), the joker markings were wrong, and the racks cracked after a month. The US buyer was paying $40 a set for what was essentially toy-grade plastic.

I spent six months reverse-engineering a proper NMJL-compatible tile. The key spec is 21×25×13mm with engraved markings filled with paint — not printed, not stickered. Melamine is the right material: dense enough to feel substantial (a full 166-tile set weighs 2.5–3.2kg), hard enough to resist scratching, and affordable enough for wholesale at $25–$60 per set FOB Shenzhen. Acrylic is the premium upgrade at $50–$120.

By 2018 I had tooled up a dedicated line and started shipping to US importers. Today we produce 3,000–5,000 sets per month, mostly for Amazon sellers, mahjong clubs, and gift distributors. About 30% of our output is OEM — custom tile colors, engraved logos, branded cases.

Why I write these articles

Most mahjong content online is written by players, not manufacturers. That means the specs are often wrong — I have read "buyers guides" that confuse melamine with acrylic, claim 144 tiles are enough for American play (they are not; you need 166 with 8 jokers), and recommend sets with printed tiles that peel in months.

I write from the factory floor. When I compare tile materials, I am comparing the actual pellets we load into our machines. When I talk about rack pushers, I am talking about the swing-arm mechanism we mold in-house. When I discuss OEM lead times, those are our real production schedules — 15–25 days for stock designs, 30–45 days for fully custom.

If you are a US importer, retailer, or club buyer researching suppliers, these articles should let you verify our expertise without a factory visit. And if you want to visit, email me — we are in Futian District, Shenzhen, 30 minutes from the airport.

What I write about

• Tile materials & manufacturing: melamine vs acrylic vs resin, engraving depth, paint fill, quality control tolerances
• American mahjong rules: NMJL card reading, joker mechanics, Charleston, winning hands — explained for new players
• Buying guides: what to look for in a set, how to spot stickered tiles, why tile weight matters
• OEM/ODM sourcing: MOQ, lead times, custom packaging, EXW/FOB/CIF shipping terms for US importers
• Care & maintenance: how to clean melamine and acrylic tiles, storage, preventing yellowing

My factory, my specs

These are the numbers I work with every day:

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