It’s a Wednesday evening inside PS40, a stylish bar in Sydney’s CBD. While torrential rain buckets down outside, inside the air is filled with quiet chatter and a persistent clinking – not of glasses, but of mahjong tiles.

Mahjong, the game which originated in 19th century China, may have once been associated with an older cohort of players. But in cities like New York, London and here, at No Flowers Mahjong Club in Sydney, the game is gaining popularity among a new generation.

No Flowers is the brainchild of brand consultant Rose Pengelly, who is of Singaporean and Baba Nyonya descent and grew up watching her grandfather play the game, when it was strictly off limits to children.

“I’ve had a bit of taboo associated with it,” she says.

“It was something we weren’t allowed to partake i

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