Mahjong, the PhD and me: Which game should I play and how

This creative chapter adopts a ludic approach in using mahjong games to explore the complexities of navigating different social spaces where there is a feeling of ‘almost the same, but not quite’. Using Bourdieusian theory as a point of departure, the author links specific games of mahjong, a Chinese tile game of luck and strategy, with their first year at a Sandstone University. In using poetry to express how cultural and cultural/educational games are played in two vastly different fields, the author makes evident how feelings of otherness are generated when an individual’s habitus does not align with the dominant group habitus. The author reminds readers that there are multiple games to be played in academia, and we should use some agency in terms of how we play the game and which rules we choose to follow.