Chess

When you look at it seriously, chess is a lively demonstration of the society.

You know what, Chinese chess is the only one with boundaries of the palace and river. The king is supposed to stay within the palace and enjoys being protected (and attacked !); the queen and bishops are specialised for defence (alas, internal affairs). The international chess (國際象棋), in a sense, is much more democratic: it has neither of the boundaries; every piece on the board - including the king itself - could go around and attack the others. In fact, the king can "exchange" its place (not completely, of course) with a rook - the so-called castling.

And the pawn of the international chess could be promoted to a higher rank when it advances to the opposite side of the board: There's no glass ceiling in this world and one would be awarded for his hard work - irrespective to his upbringing and social class in origin. In Chinese chess, the same outstanding pawn has a small benefit (it is allowed to move horizontally) but its fate remains unchanged ...

It just goes ahead and never returns.

PS. In theory, modern chess roots from the Gupta empire of ancient India, which has four kinds of pieces: pawn, knight, bishop, and rook - representing the four divisions of their army: infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariotry respectively. In reality, it seems a more close mimic of their four social classes: sudra (labours), vaisya (peasents and merchants), kshatriya (warriors), and brahmin (teachers and priests).