# Why Do People Use Chopsticks To Eat Chinese Food? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 23, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245 "2002-08-23T15:06:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/41 "2002-08-25T18:10:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hawthorne \* > I’m sure the “funky Romanisation” thing is a common problem: I have no idea _at all_ what Americans mean when they talk of General Tsao’s Chicken or Mu Shu Pork - either they don’t exist here or are known by quite different names. Those are entirely new creations by US Chinese restaurants. General Tsao’s Chicken is decent. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/42 "2002-08-25T18:18:43Z")
I don’t use chopsticks when I go to a Chinese restaurant. I’m a klutz and it’s stressful trying to look “hip” when you’re dropping food all over the place. Why would I want to be stressed out when I’m eating? (I know, practice makes perfect. But it took me long enough to learn how to use a fork properly. A girl’s only got so many hours in a day). I admit to feeling that some folks pull out chopsticks just to be pretentious. But this thread has cleared up some of this misconception. Someone told me once that chopsticks generally aren’t associated with Thai food (at least indigenously), and yet everyone I know uses them when they’re at a Thai restaurant. Does anyone know if this is a myth? ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/43 "2002-08-25T19:12:28Z")
Does anyone know if they have Western restaurants in China where you can watch local people mishandle knives and forks like we do chopsticks? For me, chopsticks would be a diet aid - I’d never get anything all the way to my mouth… ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/44 "2002-08-25T20:58:15Z")
While I was in New York last March, **Maeglin** and I went to a Korean place for dinner. I was dismayed when the food was served with no utensils but chopsticks. “Maeglin,” I said, “Can’t I have a fork?” “No,” he said, very amused. “They don’t have forks here.” I freaked out because I had never really learned to use chopsticks, so he taught me. Aside from minor incidents involving the tofu dish (I blame the soju), it was fine. And it was lots of fun, too. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/45 "2002-08-25T22:06:12Z")
I know a lot of Asian restaurants in the Chicago area will set places with chopsticks, but readily provide western utensils when asked, and usually inquire without prompting which ones the children under 12 or so would be most comfortable using. A couple places have this trick with a rubber band that makes it easier (sometimes) for the inexperienced round-eyes. Seems like a reasonable compromise to me. ---
**Author:** ![Tsubaki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Tsubaki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tsubaki)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/46 "2002-08-25T22:42:23Z")
One thing I’ve noticed living here in Japan…most Japanese people use knives and forks better than I can, and I can use chopsticks more properly than they. I think its because they learn to use a knife and fork at a later stage than chopsticks, so they learn the proper, polite way. I learned to use chopsticks when I was 17, so I learnt the proper way. But learning to use a knife and fork was a progressive hit-and-miss exercise when I was a child, and so I’m pretty hopeless at using them nicely. Just a theory… ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/47 "2002-08-25T23:58:56Z")
A couple of people have touched on the shorter journey to the mouth from the bowl. This is where a lot of Westerners come unstuck with chopsticks, because they try to leave the bowl too low. It’s a simple case of cultural opposites regarding table manners. In the West, picking your plate up in a restaurant, and scooping food into your mouth would make you look pretty gross. In Asia, sitting at the table with a Victorian straight back, leaving your bowl on the table cloth, and slowly picking up morsels would be showing great disdain, and would tell your host you don’t think much of the food. You’d also drop loads of stuff. However, the main problem I’ve seen Westerners have with chopsticks is worrying about perfection with them. If you’ve ever been to a busy dim sum place for yum cha, you’ll see why the tablecloths need to be steam cleaned. The Chinese aren’t fussed about dropping stuff. TLD’s Chopstick hint #73: For picking up tricky stuff like slippery button mushroms, never try to grab them with the chopsticks. Hold the sticks a little apart from each other, and push the food onto them with the side of the bowl. Then lift it up forklift style. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/48 "2002-08-26T02:18:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hapaXL \* > \*\* > Then I went to China. And they gave us small rice bowls to hold in our hands. And I remembered/realized that chopsticks are meant to be mainly **pushing** instruments, as in holding the bowl to your mouth and pushing the rice and food in. \*\* In Korea this would be done with a spoon. (I love Korean spoons! They’re a great shape.) Chopsticks there are used mostly for noodles, for reaching and transfering food from the serving dishes to your own bowl, and for wrapping. Wrapping can be done with kimchi, “kim” (laver seaweed–same as nori in Japan) or anything long and flat. You lay the kimchi (for example) on top of your rice, then push down with your chopsticks on either end, bringing them down into the rice and then together, creating a nice little rice-package with a kimchi wrapper. It’s a great way to eat. A lot of dishes–like pipim pap, rice with vegetables mixed in–are often eaten completely with spoons. Not exculsively, but often. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/49 "2002-08-26T03:25:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lurkernomore \* > \*\*Does anyone know if they have Western restaurants in China where you can watch local people mishandle knives and forks like we do chopsticks? > \*\* On Iron Chef, a good percentage of the judges have no clue as to how to use a fork: they grasp the handle in their fist and extend their index finger along the handle. They spear and hold the fork tines curved down (rather than up) and rather than angle it into their mouths from below, they sort of stiff-arm it above their upper lip and lower the food in at an angle from above. So, yeah. People are clumsy with unfamiliar implements world-wide. 🙂 Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/50 "2002-08-26T04:25:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Urban Ranger \* > \*\*Damn! I hate to be a nobody. 😛 \*\* Goodness, sorry **Urban Ranger**. I did a quick Ctrl+F to check whether I’d missed anyone, but somehow must have overlooked your post. **Space Vampire** , **hawthorne** is correct: “spag bog” is indeed spaghetti bolognaise. Sorry, I didn’t pause to consider whether this was a slang term also used in the US (but it’s such a good one!) Never knew “scoffing” could be a confusing either. Hokkien mee is an fried egg noodle dish, commonly cooked with prawns. It’s a term commonly used in Singapore and Malaysia, not just in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Darkrabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@Darkrabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkrabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/51 "2002-08-26T07:38:02Z")
During High School, a friend bet me I couldn’t eat my entire meal (fried rice that day) with chopsticks. For the rest of the school year, I ate every oriental meal with chopsticks… and it has stuck with me! It just seems _unnatural_ to eat oriental food with a fork to me. **darkrabbit** ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/52 "2002-08-26T08:08:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lurkernomore \* > \*\*For me, chopsticks would be a diet aid - I’d never get anything all the way to my mouth… \*\* A college friend who had grown up in her parents’ Chinese restaurant used to tell people that a Chinese diet was simple: you could eat anything you wanted… …but you could only use one chopstick 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/53 "2004-05-24T16:49:25Z")
> [@lurkernomore](#): > > Does anyone know if they have Western restaurants in China where you can watch local people mishandle knives and forks like we do chopsticks? I’ve seen it a lot in India. Of course, there are also a lot of Indians who are very skilled with knife and fork. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245/54 "2004-05-24T16:52:22Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > They spear and hold the fork tines curved down (rather than up) As an aside, tines curved down is correct in European style. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-use-chopsticks-to-eat-chinese-food/125245.md?page=2)