Jad
The Entanglements of Care and Luck as Seen Through a Game of Tong-its
Dealing Luck: Introducing Tong-its
It’s an average Sunday in Hong Kong, and I am hanging out with a group of Filipino domestic helpers. They are playing tong-its, a Filipino card game played with a standard pack of playing cards. The game is said to be derived from an American card game called Tonk, likely introduced during the America colonial period in the Philippines. A variant of rummy, the goal of the game is to empty your hand (known as a tong-its) by forming card sets, referred to as “houses” in Filipino languages (bahay, balay, etc.) and by discarding cards. Made up of a minimum of three cards, houses are formed by either collecting all four cards of the same rank (aka four-of-a-kind), or by collecting consecutively ranked cards of the same suit (aka straight flush). The way the game is played by my informants requires three players. Players are dealt 12 cards each with the dealer going first. The game starts with the dealer drawing a card from the remaining deck (usually the dealer just starts with 13 cards to save time), placing down houses if they have it, and then discarding one card from their hand to end their turn.
The next player can either choose to draw a card from the deck or use the card the last player discarded to form a house of their own (they can only do this option if they have the other cards needed to form the house in their hand). In addition to forming their own houses, players can also add cards from their hand to the houses of other players, if they hold the cards that complete the set. The turns continue until a player empties their hand (tong-its) or until the deck is exhausted, in which case the winner is determined by the lowest total value of the cards remaining in their hand. There are variations of these rules depending on the players, but this is generally how the game is played out.
Figure 1. Domestic helpers playing a round of tong-its during their day off.
Tong-its as a game of skill and chance
Tong-its, then, is a game that is a combination of luck and strategy. While there is much luck needed in drawing a strong starting hand and drawing good cards to complete your houses, there is also strategy involved in watching which cards your opponents play. If you’re looking to complete a set of three aces, but one of your opponents play a straight house with an ace, then you’ll no longer have access to one of the aces. In some rules, players lose more points if another player plays a tong-its hand and the game ends before they have played any houses (also called having a “burned house” or sunog-bahay). However, despite its competitive nature, I’ve observed instances wherein tong-its games also provide opportunities for cooperation and care.
One such instance happened as I was watching Julie, Tina, and Fe play a round of tong-its. It was Fe’s turn, and she looked at both Julie and Tina, who at this point had not yet been able to play houses from their hands.
Fe asked both of them in Filipino if they had houses to play in their turn, and they both said not yet. So, Fe said that she’d let another round pass before calling a win. Discarding a 10 of spades, she said to Tina, “Here, I know you need this.” True enough, Tina took the discarded 10 and laid down a set of three 10s. In her turn, Julie was also able to play a house, and when Fe’s turn came again, she played her tong-its hand to win the round, much to her delight. After the round, I asked why she did that when she could have won with more points if her opponents weren’t able to play houses. She told me that she didn’t want them to lose any more points than they needed to, since the game was just for fun. It wouldn’t do to have people feeling bad over the game. Thus, tong-its, despite its competitive goal, still affords instances for people to show care and cooperation, for in a larger context, the game exists as a social activity.
Tong-its and the fortunes of foreign domestic workers
In many ways, the life of a foreign domestic worker is similar to a game of tong-its. Despite having a standardized employment contract, foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong often have very different work experiences. Like drawing from a standard deck of cards, much of it relies on luck – you can be as prepared as possible, go through all the training, have the necessary qualifications, but if you’re unlucky to be paired with an incompatible employer, then you might have a difficult time at your job. Conversely, you might by lucky enough to be paired with an employer that you get along well, and manage to spend years, even decades, working for their family. Some employers demand a much lighter workload than others, while some might be stingier with meal allowances and salaries. The helpers I hang out with have showed me this, as they often compare their working situations with each other, often poking fun at those fortunate enough to have a lighter workload – “Oh, Sheila only has to take care of a cat, she’s so lucky. She gets to lie around the house all day! Meanwhile, I have to watch over three kids and one grandpa, I never get a moment’s rest!” Like tong-its, where you can effectively pass some of your luck to your opponent when you discard a card they might use or put down a house where they can add cards to, helpers have found ways to distribute their luck across their communities of care [1]. Every Sunday, these ladies come together to share meals and play cards. But not everyone is allowed by their employers to cook at home. So, those who are allowed are often given ingredients by those who aren’t the day before, so that they can cook the food and have it ready for tomorrow.
Those who are lucky enough to have bigger living quarters are able to store the things they use every time they have a cookout – a portable gas stove, grilling equipment, etc. As one helper told me, “All week long I work hard at home and have to eat what my employer eats, but once a week, thanks to my friends, I get to relax and eat Filipino food.” Even those who, by virtue of their employment conditions, are unable to contribute to the meals in some form or the other, are still invited to join the meal – there is no accounting for who made what and who is entitled to what. At the end of the day, all leftover food is packed up, and much more is given to those who others know will not be able to eat this type of food for yet another week.
Securing a good working arrangement as a foreign domestic helper in Hong Kong is largely a matter of luck. Yet, through the care work provided by one’s migrant community, this luck can be effectively distributed across a wider network of people, thus making life in Hong Kong as a migrant domestic worker just a little bit more bearable, giving workers a greater capacity to endure despite much needed-support and protections from institutions. It is the dynamics of this redistribution of luck through care and support that I wish to describe and explain in my dissertation, as expressed through the material medium of food.
[1] Francisco-Menchavez, Valerie (2018) The Labor of Care: Filipina Migrants and Transnational Families in the Digital Age. USA: University of Illinois Press.