Influence of the West, returns to the East: Tổ Tôm and Bài Bất

Case : 011, 012, 013, 014

Tổ Tôm is is derived from the money-suited Khanhoo, consisting of 120 cards. The head and foot of the card gives the rank and suit in Chinese characters. There are three suits: Cash (文, Văn), Strings of Cash (索, Sách), and Myriads of Strings (萬, Vạn). Each suit is divided into ten ranks with the highest cards being the Half Cash, Zero String, and Old Man respectively. There are four copies of each card unlike its four-suited kin, Bài Bất. Bài Bất is basically the same one as Tổ Tôm, but it has a fourth suit, and only one of each subject. It contains 38 cards; 35 of them belong to the four suits, and the three ranks as in the previous game. During French colonial rule, the manufacturer Camoin of Marseille redesigned the deck to depict people wearing traditional Japanese costumes from the Edo period. The cards were then exported to South-eastern Asia, especially to the French colonies Tonkin and Cochinchina (presently, Vietnam).