Double Elephant brand Four Colour cards

“Double Elephant” brand is the registered trade mark of Yuan Ho Xing, the name of the manufacturing company, which translates as “origin of happiness.”   Although the cards are used in Singapore, they appear to be printed in Hong Kong. According to my great aunt (an expert on these matters) there used to be yet another sort of four-colour-cards, which were shorter and squatter than the ones I show you, and had ochre-red backs. Images kindly supplied by Anthony Lee of Singapore.

Above: ‘Double Elephant’ brand ‘Four Colour cards.’ The ranks are : 將- general, 士-advisor or valet, 相- elephant, * 車- chariot, 馬-horse or knight, 炮- cannon, 卒- soldier. * the character 相 taken literally means 'like.' Some sources translate this as 'minister.' By right, the character for elephant should be 象. The reason for this strange substitiution is that both characters sound much the same. Images kindly supplied by Anthony Lee of Singapore.