Editing Fan-Tan (section)

==History==
[[File:Fan-Tan in New York City 1887.jpg|thumb|right|A page from ''[[Frank Leslie's Weekly|Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper]]'' depicting a fan-tan parlor in New York, a raid by the police, and cards and coins used in fan-tan, in December 1887.]]

The game may have arisen during third and fourth centuries, during the period of the [[Northern and Southern dynasties]].<ref>{{cite book | author1 =郭双林 | author2 =肖梅花 | title =中华赌博史 |lang=zh | trans-title = History of gambling in China | location =Beijing  | publisher =中国社会科学出版社 [China Social Sciences Press] |isbn=9787500417194 | year = 1995 | page = 225}}</ref> It then spread through southern China during the [[Qing dynasty]].<ref name=Paules>{{cite conference | url = http://www.reseau-asie.com/cgi-bin/prog/gateway.cgi?langue=fr&password=&email=&dir=myfile_colloque&type=jhg54gfd98gfd4fgd4gfdg&id=421&telecharge_now=1&file=a37paules_xavier.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110715174717/http://www.reseau-asie.com/cgi-bin/prog/gateway.cgi?langue=fr&password=&email=&dir=myfile_colloque&type=jhg54gfd98gfd4fgd4gfdg&id=421&telecharge_now=1&file=a37paules_xavier.pdf | archive-date = 15 July 2011 | title = Le fantan, une étude préliminaire | trans-title = Fantan: a preliminary study | language = French | first = Xavier | last = Paulès | conference = Atelier 37 : Le Jeu en Asie, 3ème Congrès du Réseau Asie - IMASIE / Workshop 37 : Gambling in Asia, 3rd Congress of Réseau Asie - IMASIE | date = 26–28 September 2007 | location = Paris, France }}</ref> The name fantan dates back only to the mid-nineteenth century. Before that time, ''fantan'' was known as {{zh|t=掩錢 |l=covering coins |p=yǎnqián |labels=no}}, {{zh|t=攤戲 |p=tānxì |labels=no}}, {{zh|t=攤錢 |p=tānqián |labels=no}}, or {{zh|t=意錢 |p=yìqián |labels=no}}.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Xavier |last=Paulès |title=Gambling in China reconsidered: ''fantan'' in South China during the early twentieth century |journal=International Journal of Asian Studies |volume=7 |number=2 |date=July 2010 |pages=179–200 |doi=10.1017/S1479591410000069 |s2cid=143671682 }}</ref> It was prominent during the Late Qing and [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Republican period]] in Canton and the Pearl River Delta region.<ref name=Paules /> The game was also played in the [[Philippines]] under the name ''Capona''.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=659313 |title=Philippine Games |author=Culin, Stewart |journal=American Anthropologist |date=October–December 1900 |volume=2 |number=4 |pages=643–656|doi=10.1525/aa.1900.2.4.02a00040 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

After 1850, ''fantan''  spread overseas as a side effect of the massive Cantonese emigration. As a rule, in places where a significant number of Cantonese migrants could be found, ''fantan'' was also present.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Xavier |last=Paulès |title=An illustration of China's 'paradoxical soft power': the dissemination of the gambling game fantan 番攤 by the Cantonese diaspora, 1850–1950 |journal=Translocal Chinese: East Asian Perspectives |volume=11 |number=2 |date=Fall 2017 |pages=187–207 |doi=10.1163/24522015-01102002}}</ref> Fan-tan was very popular among Chinese migrants in America, as most of them were of Cantonese origin.<ref name=Paules /><ref name=Culin>{{citation | url = http://healthy.uwaterloo.ca/museum/Archives/Culin/Gambling1891/ | title = The Gambling Games Of The Chinese In America | first = Stewart | last = Culin | work = Series in Philology Literature and Archaeology | volume = I | issue = 4 | location = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA | publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press | date = 1891 | access-date = August 30, 2017}}</ref> [[Jacob Riis]], in his famous book about the underbelly of New York, ''[[How the Other Half Lives]]'' (1890), wrote of entering a [[Chinatown, Manhattan|Chinatown]] fan-tan parlor: "At the first foot-fall of leather soles on the steps the hum of talk ceases, and the group of celestials, crouching over their game of fan tan, stop playing and watch the comer with ugly looks. Fan tan is their ruling passion." The large [[Chinatown, San Francisco|Chinatown in San Francisco]] was also home to dozens of fan-tan houses in the 19th century. The city's former police commissioner Jesse B. Cook wrote that in 1889 Chinatown had 50 fan-tan games, and that "in the 50 fan tan gambling houses the tables numbered from one to 24, according to the size of the room."

California amended Section 330 of the [[California Penal Code]] in 1885, adding fan-tan to its list of banned games;<ref>{{cite California statute |year=1885 |title=An Act to amend section three hundred and thirty of an Act entitled an Act to establish a Penal Code, approved February 14, 1872, to prohibit gaming |chapter=CXLV |page=135}} [https://clerk.assembly.ca.gov/sites/clerk.assembly.ca.gov/files/archive/Statutes/1885/1885.pdf#page=187 direct URL]</ref> this coincided with the general rise of [[anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States]], as fan-tan was considered a differentiating vice on par with [[opium]] use<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SJMN18830225.2.18 |title=Police! Police! Gambling Hells That Are Open Day and Night. Training School for Young Thieves. Never Ending High Carnival of Debauchery and Crime. |date=February 25, 1883 |newspaper=San Jose Mercury-news |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LH18850611.2.5 |title=The Naughty Chinaman |date=June 11, 1885 |newspaper=Livermore Herald |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18870921.2.15 |title=The Chinese in Eastern Cities |date=September 21, 1887 |newspaper=Los Angeles Herald |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref> and the direct cause of property crime and violence.<ref name=SFC-940131>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33758242/chinese-fan-tan-gambling-sf-1894/ |title=Fan Tan Is Played |date=January 31, 1894 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=5 March 2021}}</ref> Raids on fan-tan parlors were regularly featured in contemporary news articles, with police in some cases posing as Chinese to infiltrate the games.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18921124.2.27 |title=Five Unlucky Mongolians |date=November 24, 1892 |newspaper=Los Angeles Herald |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19000823.2.129 |title=Novel Capture of Fan-Tan Evidence |date=August 23, 1900 |newspaper=San Francisco Call |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19021005.2.83 |title=Raid a Fan-Tan Game |date=October 5, 1902 |newspaper=San Francisco Call |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref> In [[San Jose, California]], a typo in a local printed law led to charges being dismissed against several bettors.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SJH18880508.2.36 |title=The Letter 'T.' It is a little affair, but it managed to knock out an ordinance. |date=May 8, 1888 |newspaper=San Jose Herald |access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref> Despite its illegality, it was estimated that 100 fan-tan parlors were operating in San Francisco's Chinatown around the turn of the 20th century.<ref name=SFC-940131/>

Because of the police raids, fan-tan parlors adopted double-entrance security measures: after entering through the street doors, a bettor would have to pass through a hallway and a second interior set of doors. If the guard posted on the exterior doors did not recognize the prospective bettor or the guard raised an alarm in the event of a raid, the interior doors, often heavily reinforced with iron, would be shut and barred, giving the fan-tan patrons and parlor time to dismantle the game, conceal evidence, and flee the premises.<ref name=SFC-940131/>

Fan-tan is no longer as popular as it once was, having been replaced by modern [[casino]] games like [[Baccarat (card game)|Baccarat]], and other traditional Chinese games such as [[Mah Jong]] and [[Pai Gow]]. Fan-tan is still played at some [[Gambling in Macau|Macau casinos]].<ref name=Macau>{{cite web | url = https://wizardofmacau.com/games/fantan.html | title = Fan Tan in Macau | first = James | last = K. | date = 1 April 2009 | work = The Wizard of Macau | access-date = 30 August 2017}}</ref>