For anyone under 40, their childhood included at least some period of playing "Tycoon." For example, Chang Hsin-yi, 33, who is now studying for her doctorate in bio-statistics at the University of North Carolina, recalls that when she was small they would play "Tycoon" every rainy day, during long summer vacation days, or over the New Year holiday. Especially Chinese New Year's Eve: while the elders were playing mahjong on the table, the kids would be on the floor having a go at " Tycoon"; the littlest one still didn't know how to play, so he would sit on the side being the "banker" in charge of the cash. And when the clock sounded and the firecrackers went off, you knew it was the New Year.

However, with changes in society as a whole, the design, contents, and children's mindsets in this kind of "money game" are all rather different. Chang Hsin-yi is astonished by the rich "economic jargon" ten-year-old Tsai Ming-twan employs. It's even harder to imagine that they can even play (and understand) the currently trendy "Banker" money game, with its investments in stocks, buying and selling of gold, and checking accounts.

Slow Selling Tycoon: The earliest "Tycoon" was born in 1956. It was developed out of the American game of "Monopoly" by a Chung-ho stationery store owner's child, who had studied in the States. The game is played on a board divided up into "properties" with famous names. Players move forward according to the numbers on dice. When you stop at a place, you can use money from the bank to buy the property, build houses, or start up hotels. If someone else is "unfortunate" enough to land on your property, they have to pay a fee; as for how much they have to pay, that depends on how much you've developed your property. Thus, how to use your limited "capital" wisely, to empty the pockets of the other players and become the "tycoon," is exciting and fun.

Perhaps because it has fit in well with the times, Tycoon became increasingly popular, and "siblings"--"Tycoon's World Tour," "Tycoon's Tour of Taiwan," and "Tycoon's Tour of China"--appeared one after the other. Because it was the first, "Tycoon" has become the synonym for all children's money games.

However, for the first ten years or so after it came on the market, "Tycoon" had poor sales and certainly did not make its founder into a tycoon himself. Besides the lack of experience in production and sales and the low name recognition, the consignment percentage was too high, making its price reach NT$100 35 years ago--equivalent to about NT$2000 today. Later the price was lowered to NT$50, but in that era when most people made their own toys, no one except wealthy households could afford to play "Tycoon." Cheng Yuan-ching, now 36, who works in the government, remembers that in a thirty household government dormitory, only the family of a doctor in the provincial hospital had a set of "Tycoon."

It was only in the 1970's, with the take-off of the Taiwan economy and long years of cumulative name recognition, that sales volume reached 100,000 sets a year, becoming a collective memory for most children. Lin Yu-chi, 28, who works in a travel agency, even now always ends up in a game of "Tycoon" when she gets together with her old gang from college.

The Smell of Money: "It's completely different when you play it when you get older than when you played it as a child," points out Chang Hsin-yi, who has played it all her life. When you're young, you hate to part with your money, and think that every property is too expensive. But when you're older you see that the most expensive place is no more than 4000 dollars, everybody gets a little free-wheeling when they play. Now people are also more aware of money management, and understand that they should buy contiguous properties to multiply the charges on the other players. And you'll dump a valueless property in hand in order to buy one that's worth more. "Though you're playing the same game, the smell of money is much stronger," says Lin Shｕ-ch'i, who shares Chang's view.

Speaking of the smell of money, the money-type games and toys for children are stunning these days. The game "Banker," produced by the Chu Tong toy company at the height of the stock market surge three years ago, is the classic example.

"In today's commercial society, figuring out how to employ your capital and seizing control of investment channels is an inevitable experience for any entrepreneur. How can you turn your small capital into huge returns in stocks, gold, or real estate. . . . " This is the introductory explanation to the rules of the game of "Banker."

Who Uses Cash Anymore?: When you open the "Banker" game box, you won't see simple print and small finger-size currency. Now it's five color print and bills that are of a size and shape easily confused with the real thing. Besides that they have preferred stock certificates, check books, gold coins, credit cards--every type of financial instrument that you can find in adult society.

There are places on the board for people to invest in public bonds or futures, and there are all kinds of indicators, from crashes to booming bull markets, in the "Fate" cards. Can kids follow all this? Hsieh Hsu-kwang, general manager of the Chu Tong toy company, says with conviction: "With the impact of the stock market boom over the last two years, children listening to their parents talk, and with media reports, I'm sure that these things are not unfamiliar." Of all their products of this type, "Banker"--the most realistic--accounts for 60% of sales.

Besides being realistic in all appearances, the amounts of money being tossed around have increased 15 times over. The traditional "Tycoon" used "dollars" as its units; added up it came to no more than 135,000 cents. For "Banker," there is enough to total over two million in currency. The Chu Tong company's general manager, Huang Yun-ch'i, states that, "Times have changed. Now kids have a lot of economic resources, it's not like the past when you were happy beyond belief to have a dollar and a half. So the only way to attract their imaginations and interest is to make the face values of the currency and the overall totals more than they could have in the real world."

Tycoons for Tyke-oons: For example, Tsai Ming-twan has NT$20,000 in his primary school bank account, and the "little rich girl" in their class has over NT$100,000. According to statistics of the Directorate General of Posts at the Tunhua primary school, deposits average over NT$10,000 per student. Compared to the past, these kids are all already "tycoons"!

Although giving children money games in a money society has generated diametrically opposed assessments from commentators and educators, from an educational point of view the instructional value of the geographic information imparted by "Tycoon" outweighs the entertainment value.

For example, a round of "Tycoon's Tour of Taiwan" is like a geography lesson, and you can pick up the names of many cities, countries and famous places, and their locations. Similarly, in "Tycoon's World Tour," countries are grouped together by continent, and the capital cities are written at the bottom. Yeh Hsiu-tuan, who teaches in the Pei-pu Middle School, relates that "My enlightenment in geography came from 'Tycoon'; after getting to middle school, whenever there was a test of national capital, I would just think of 'Tycoon.''' Three years ago, in order to get on board the craze for travelling to the mainland, "Tycoon's Tour of China" came out. It has the name of every province and provincial capital. It's too bad that Yeh Hsiu-tuan never played it, or studying Chinese geography would have been much more fun and easy.

Also. the "Fate" and "Chance" cards describe special features of each location, with a touch of humor. For example, there's the one requiring a two hundred cent "doctor's fee" for being hit by fireworks in Yen-shui in Western Taiwan, or 1000 dollars for "Insurance" to go white-water rafting at Hsiukuluan Stream in eastern Taiwan. You can make 2200 dollars by exporting beer from Shantung province in mainland China, or collect 2000 in profits from selling Peking Duck. There's a 200 dollar entry fee to see the bullfights in Spain, or a 2000 dollar reward for cracking a smuggling case in North Thailand, or spend l000 dollars for a ticket to a concert in Vicnna. . . . All these vividly enrich the players' ideas about geography and dreams of travelling anywhere in the world.

Compared to the shimmering, jet-set, big bucks, high stakes money games of today, an original 35-year-old set of the original "Tycoon" seems a bit backward, but also brings back some of the feel of that era: like donating l000 dollars to the Patriotic Fund, winning 2000 dollars in the Patriotic Lottery or getting 3000 dollars for shooting down a Chinese Communist MIG. Everything speaks of that era's mood of pooling resources and training manpower and of high tension across the Taiwan Strait.

Keeping Up With the Times: In terms of the "family tree," although "Tycoon" is clearly an offspring of a foreign game, there were games of this type as far back as the Tang dynasty. It's just that at that time you didn't go for money, but played for office. The game later came to be called the "Game of Moving Up in Rank." Kuo Li-cheng, a scholar of folk culture, explains that there was no limit to the number of people who could play "Moving Up," that players moved forward or back according to the roll of the dice, and that everyone started as an illiterate, then proceeded to enter school, take examinations, become an official, and then rise to enter the cabinet and become the premier. The first player who made it would receive fruits or cakes from the other players as a "congratulatory gift." Although the examination system was abandoned at the end of the Ching dynasty, people continued to play the game right up into the 1930's and 40's. In any case, it shows the Chinese people's long history of chasing fame and fortune.

Since the family of the creator of "Tycoon" emigrated to the US in 1986 and the rights to the game were sold to the Ya Wan Stationery Company, sales have increase 40-fold in five years. Even with the intense competition in the toy market, the daily production of 12,000 sets has made owner Wang Jen-sheng a true "tycoon." Next year Ya Wan will set up a factory in mainland China, and will manufacture a version of "Tycoon" aimed at mainland Chinese. Wang Jen-meng is optimistic about the market, and estimates that with the mainland economy being increasingly liberalized, just now when people dare to dream and the desire to be a tycoon is strong, "Tycoon" could become a fad. This would make an interesting page in the history of changes in late 20th century Chinese society.

[Picture Caption]

Realistic cash, preferred stock, credit cards, and gold coins--with anew era, not only do children's money games have new props, the amounts have also all increased.

Wang Jan-meng bought the rights to "Tycoon" five years ago for NT$1 million. With a determined sales policy, sales have increased 40 times, making him a real Tycoon.

I love "Tycoon." Compared to the past, almost all kids today are already little Tycoons.

With 35 years of history behind it, "Tycoon" has already been a part of childhood for many people.

Wang Jan-meng bought the rights to "Tycoon" five years ago for NT$1 million. With a determined sales policy, sales have increased 40 times, making him a real Tycoon.

I love "Tycoon." Compared to the past, almost all kids today are already little Tycoons.

With 35 years of history behind it, "Tycoon" has already been a part of childhood for many people.