How Did Chopsticks Become Such a Popular Eating Utensil?

Whole swaths of the world's population use chopsticks for their daily meals. Learn where they originated and how they evolved in this episode of BrainStuff: https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/chopsticks.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog obam here. When it comes
to utensils, chopsticks are one of the oldest kids on
the block. Are in the kitchen. They earned their place
at the Chinese dinner table around four hundred CE, but
we're used for cooking in China well before that, think

(00:22):
around twelve hundred b C. A fast forward three thousand
years and an exorbitant amount of rice later, and these
thin handheld sticks have only grown in popularity. More than
of the world's population uses chopsticks as their main eating utensil.
China alone goes through forty five billion disposable pairs per year.

(00:43):
So how did two sticks start such a massive meal
time revolution? The ancient Chinese were the first to experiment
with chopsticks nearly three thousand years ago, but at that
time they weren't used as eating utensils. They used them
for cooking since they could safely dip them into boiling
pots of water. Then China's population boomed, cooks were forced

(01:05):
to conserve resources, which meant chopping food into smaller bites
that used less fuel to cook. Through bite sized foods
paired with Chinese philosopher and vegetarian Confucius is anti knife beliefs,
set up the chopsticks for widespread adoption beyond China. A
Confucius saw knives as a reminder of the slaughterhouse for

(01:26):
the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Works.
Spoke by email with Ray she Who, founder of Lost
Plate food Tours, who grew up in Chengdu, China, where
she first used chopsticks at the age of two. She
now leads food tours throughout Asia, and she's encountered many
chopstick varieties in the process. And Chinese chopsticks, for instance,

(01:47):
tend to be long and thick because Chinese cuisine often
involves plucking pieces of food from shared dishes around the table.
In Japan, where bamboo chopsticks were adopted in five hundred
CE for religious ceremonies, the utensils have evolved drastically over time.
They're now particularly fine tuned for one of Japan's main foods,
fish who explained, Japanese chopsticks are short and sharp. It's

(02:12):
easy to remove fishbones with sharp chopsticks. She added, the
Japanese cuisine often involves individual portions instead of shared dishes.
So those chopsticks don't need to be as long. While ubiquitous,
now disposable wooden chopsticks were first invented in Japan in
eighteen seventy eight. The upper class in China and Japan
used to use ivory, jade, coral, and silver chopsticks. Who

(02:36):
says that the latter they believed would quote corrode and
turn black if it came into contact with poisoned food. Now,
bamboo is often used for chopsticks since it's so easy
and inexpensive to obtain. Head over to South Korea, and
chopsticks look a bit different still. Their chopsticks are flat

(02:56):
and typically made of metal. Who points to the popularity
of South Korean barbecue. The metal chopsticks won't catch fire
when diners are grilling their meat table side. Also, despite
the prevalence of chopsticks in Thi American restaurants, the utensils
don't often appear on tie tables. Forks and spoons are
currently preferred wherever you use them. However, how you handle

(03:21):
your chopsticks matters. Who explains that the way you hold
them in your hands is pretty much personal preference. Though
there are regional folk tales. She said in my hometown,
people say, if you hold chopsticks toward the bottom, closer
to your food, you will marry someone nearby. If you
hold them at the top, far away from the food,
you will marry someone far away. But folklore and hand

(03:43):
grip aside, there are definitely rules of etiquette when it
comes to using chopsticks at the table. Of course, niceties
may vary, so if you're in a place it's new
to you, take a moment to observe how it's done.
But generally speaking, don't use chopsticks to eat straight from
serving dishes from your plate, and don't use chopsticks to
spear food. If you can't grab something with chopsticks, using

(04:06):
your fingers is generally okay if the food is already
on your plate. If it's in a serving dish, look
for a spoon. Speaking of, only use serving chopsticks to
access food in these shared dishes, but don't dig through
food in a main serving dish with your chopsticks. Also,
don't place chopsticks directly on the table, place them on

(04:26):
top of your own dish, parallel to the table, or
on a chopstick rest. Also, never point chopsticks at fellow diners,
even if they're resting atop your bowl or plate. And
A speaking of how you set your chopsticks down, this
last one is important. Who said you should never stick
your chopsticks into your food and let them rest there.

(04:49):
You should always place them on top of the bowler plate.
And this is because sticking them in your food is
similar to putting incense in a pot or bowl, which
is what we do for ancestors who have passed away.
So if you do this, we think it means you've
called some homeless street ghosts. Today's episode is based on

(05:11):
the article how chopsticks Became the staple utensil of Asia
on how stuff works dot Com, written by Stephanie Vermillion.
Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with
how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang.
Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
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