Dispose of chopsticks and China loses part of its identity | Audra Ang

sticks withdrawal China is back on the agenda, but deeply rooted cultural significance must count for something

Although I grew up in Singapore and has lived in China for seven years, has never learned how to use chopsticks with skill or dexterity, as if they were extensions graceful fingers. Go straight to goal and nothing to eat, big or small, slippery or sticky, is out of reach.

Instead of keeping my parallel rods and skillfully maneuver the ends toward each other, crossed mine about half to pivot to better leverage. They told me that "X" lust my colleague dinner, which, of course, was not the case. Since I am also left-handed (another ancient Chinese no-no), I think it would be regarded as a general cause lost.

However, I felt a twinge of anxiety when I learned that the Chinese legislator discourage the use of disposable chopsticks for environmental reasons -. And considering alternatives

Guangxin Bo, president of the national wood Jilin Forest Industry Group, said that the country produces about 80 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks a year, is 20m 20-year-old trees - an unsustainable burden on the national forests.

"To solve the problem of disposable chopsticks, I think we first need to make a change in the eating habits of the population and we urge everyone to bring their own utensils for eating" , he said, "and secondly, we gradually discover a substitute for them."

• What this means is difficult, and how fast it will happen is debatable - there have been several abortive campaign to end the use of disposable chopsticks in recent years - but if the knives and ranges are underway this substitution is unthinkable.
• In China, chopsticks are the quintessence of life and culture such as tea and rice or noodles (depending on whether you're in the north or south). When I lived in Beijing or on a mission trip with a fork was rarely an option, and certainly not in restaurants hole-in-the-wall that served the most delicious interpretations of dumplings, noodles and dishes "house style" such as tomato sauce with eggs, fried potatoes and pork stew flavored spicy and red.

There are many stories about the origin of chopsticks, which are somehow rooted in Chinese history for thousands of years. Many center around practical needs - get the meat from the heat, speed, using everything around. There are also many superstitions attached to it: the sticks that fall is bad luck, standing in the rice paste is taboo because images of incense sticks in funerary altars, and the search for a partner means you have uneven waste transport

Then there is the long list of prohibitions chopsticks no point to them, Do not spear food with them, do not use them to get your bowl; beggars exactly that. Among the favorite ways fish are cooked with meat and vegetables in the boiling broth while eating "hot pot" with friends, and delivery option pieces show affection or respect, not to mention revolve around sticks offer the side that does not touch the mouth.

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