Guandan

Last updated
Guandan
People gathering together to play Guandan.jpeg
People play Guandan in Nanjing in 2019
Genres Mind sport
Players4
Setup time30 seconds
Playing timeDependent on variation or rules
SkillsObservation, Analysis, Memory, Strategies

Guandan is a shedding-type card game that originated in Jiangsu province, China.

Contents

The game is played by four players, sitting opposite each other in partnerships, and uses two decks of standard international playing cards (including the Jokers) for a total of 108 cards. The basic objective of the game is to play increasingly high combinations of cards, so as to empty your hand before your opponents. In Guandan, a team's score is expressed as a level. There are 13 levels in total, corresponding to the card ranks from 2 up to A (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A). In a Game-based tournament, a team only wins the game if it wins on Level A.

Etymology

The characters in Guandan (掼蛋) literally mean "Throwing Eggs". The second character is a homophone of the character 弹, meaning bomb, which is also suggested as an origin for the game's name. An alternative name for the game is Huai'an Running Fast (淮安跑得快), referencing the city where the game originated.

History

Guandan was invented in Huai'an, Jiangsu in the 1960s. From there, it spread to neighboring cities of Huai'an such as Nanjing in the 1990s. In 2020, it was estimated that there were over 20 million people who played this game in the Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Certain television channels have specific TV programs for Guandan, and certain websites contain online Guandan games. [1]

"《掼蛋传习》新书发布会暨中国掼蛋文化高峰论坛在南京举行" ["Guandan Exercise" publication conference and Chinese Guandan culture forum holds in Nanjing]. Xinhua (in Chinese). Dec 8, 2020. Archived from the original on January 20, 2020. Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  • "《淮安掼蛋竞赛规则》正式发布" [Huai'an Gudan rules has been officially published]. People's Daily Online (in Chinese). Apr 15, 2017. Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  • 1 2 3 "中国掼蛋研究院发布:《掼蛋娱乐规则(中英文)版》" (in Chinese). Mar 20, 2019. Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  • 1 2 3 4 5 xin, Xu (Mar 27, 2019). "洋气!江苏本土竞赛游戏掼蛋出英文版规则啦" [International! Jiangsu competition game Guandan publishes English version of rules]. China Jiangsu (in Chinese). Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  • Yuanyuan, Yi (Apr 12, 2017). "官方出台新规教你玩掼蛋!还剩10张就要报牌" [Official new rules teach u how to play Guandan! Reporting cards when left ten cards in hands]. Leechee News (in Chinese). Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  • Guandan
    Traditional Chinese 摜蛋
    Simplified Chinese 掼蛋
    Transcriptions