Participants play guandan card game at the national open competition in Shanghai. Photo: Shanghai sports bureau

Traditional card game guandan, or “throwing eggs,” has become popular among Chinese communities recently especially in the financial sector. The game has been put into the spotlight again following Shanghai guandan sports association’s establishment, with Qi Shi, chairman of stock information provider East Money Information Co elected as the first president.

When attending the first meeting of the association on January 27, Xu Bin, director of the Shanghai sports bureau, said that he hopes more enthusiasts will participate in this sport under the guidance of the association.

The game was originated in Huai’an, East China’s Jiangsu Province, and then became popular in the neighboring provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui. There are already 140 million guandan fans nationwide based on preliminary calculation, according to media reports.

The tactical yet luck-based poker game is usually played by four players who sit opposite each other in partnerships. It requires the use of two decks of standard international playing cards, with a total of 108 cards, and each player will have 27 cards. The game offers various types such as single card, pairs, triples, full houses and straights. 

It is a game in which four individuals collaborate in pairs and compete to quickly throw all the cards. This activity has gained popularity as a means of socializing within the financial sector.

Guandan was included as a performance event for the first time at the Fifth National Mind Sports Games held in Hefei, East China’s Anhui Province, in August 2023.

In September 2023, the first stop of the national guandan open competition was held in Shanghai, attracting 72 teams and a total of 144 players, said Shanghai sports authorities.

The General Administration of Sport of China also released a trial guandan competition discipline guidelines and penalty regulations on August 30, 2023, to strengthen the management and promote the healthy development of the game.

There have been media reports saying that Tianwen Education Group in Yichang, Central China’s Hubei Province has assigned a winter vacation homework to its students to learn how to play guandan. An employee from the school told the media that the school administration did not make it a mandatory requirement, and it can only be regarded as an extracurricular activity for personal interest, according to Hunan-based news portal xxcb.cn. 

The relevant information such as the formula, and books related to guandan were also circulated online recently. 

“We usually play guandan before dinner or after, which is a good social work to enhance people’s connection,” a local resident surnamed Wang from Anhui Province told the Global Times on Monday. Guandan embodies great wisdom, with cultural significance and connotation, which are welcomed by the public, the resident said.

Global Times