A round feng shui ornament, 6 cm across, decorated with mahjong-style tiles and traditional lucky symbols. It comes in a colourful gift box, weighs 166 g and is made in China. You can put it on a desk, a bookcase or in the living room, and it fits in one hand.
Mahjong tiles and lucky symbols
Mahjong is a four-player game that took shape in 19th-century China. It is played with small tiles instead of cards, marked with Chinese characters, circles and bamboo stalks. In feng shui tradition, tiles like these and lucky talismans are linked with prosperity, abundance and success.
Many people know mahjong as a computer puzzle in which matching tiles are removed in pairs. That is a much later one-player game that only borrows the mahjong tiles; the original is played by four people around a table.
The wealth corner
Feng shui is the Chinese tradition of arranging living space, and its name literally means wind and water. One school of feng shui holds that the far left corner, seen from the front door, is the place of wealth, so many people put their lucky objects there.
If you do not follow these rules, simply put it where you will see it every day, such as your work desk or a bookcase in the living room.
Ready to give in its box
The colourful box means you do not need to wrap it. People often wish each other luck for a new job, an exam, a move or the start of their own business, and a small object like this goes well with those wishes. Hand it over with a few lines of good wishes. Boxed as it is, it can go straight onto a birthday table or under the Christmas tree.