What is your professional relation to mahjong?

What is your profession?

Before becoming the Rules Director for WSoM, I was running a "German-style board game specialty store" (selling games like Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne and Puerto Rico).  The German games were really excellent and opened new horizons of my gaming eyes and mind.  From them I learned many things about how games should be designed, how game rules should be written, and such.  A game player can focus on one game and become an expert, but a game designer/developer needs to have a wide exposure (to various games) so that his vision doesn't become too narrow.

Currently, during the off months of WSoM, I work as mahjong scholar and write my mahjong book for passion, while doing financial investments for income.

Do you play Zung Jung yourself?

It was many years ago when I started as a fan of riichi mahjong.  After a while, I began to see its (what I consider) flaws and started to develop Zung Jung. Now, ZJ is what I mostly play, as that is what I prefer. In fact, I'll feel very unhappy if I have to play a style which has a major flaw (such as self-draw inflation or excessive emphasis on concealment).

Besides WSoM, is ZJ played anywhere?

There are isolated groups in Hong Kong and overseas who like ZJ and play it. There are some people who speak for ZJ on Board Game Geek, for example.

Do you make money on selling'Zung Jung?

Currently, only to WSoM.  The rules of Zung Jung are released under a Creative Commons license and is free for non-commercial use.