How to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly. How to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly

The history of the appearance of Chinese chopsticks

Let's go back a little and find out how and when they were invented. Chinese chopsticks appeared more than 2,500 years ago, and initially they were used only by the emperor and some of his entourage. Only many years later they began to be used for food in Everyday life ordinary citizens. Every year, chopsticks became more and more popular, and gradually they began to be used in Japan, Vietnam, and also Korea. Traditional Chinese chopsticks were made of bamboo and were called "kuaizu". Outwardly, they looked like tweezers.

Today, split-type sticks, which can be made from various materials. Wood remains the most common, but you can find sticks made of metal, bone or plastic. The wood from which the sticks are made can vary, and their processing can also vary significantly. Chinese chopsticks can be varnished, inlaid with various stones, with a wide variety of designs applied. Despite them appearance, it is important to know how to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly. Only in this case will you be able to use them successfully.

How to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly

Conventionally, the sticks can be divided into lower and upper. The lower one is fixed in the hand in such a way that it always remains motionless. Only the top stick moves, and with its help pieces of food are captured and held. If you still don’t know how to use this attribute, then from this article you can learn how to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly to make eating convenient.

In order for the lower stick to remain motionless, it is placed in the recess between the index and thumb of the right hand, and also rests on the half-bent ring finger. The top stick should be parallel to the bottom and located 15 mm higher. There are two options for holding the top stick, and everyone can choose the one that is more convenient for themselves. The first involves holding the top stick like a ballpoint pen used for writing. In the second option, the stick must be pressed against the middle and index fingers, which should be located at the same level. How to eat properly Chinese chopsticks? After you have taken the chopsticks using any of the methods indicated above, you need to adjust their length with your left hand so that when they touch, they touch each other only with their tips. In order to bring them together and grab a piece of food, it is enough to bend your index finger.

Using chopsticks while eating

In order to learn how to properly use Chinese chopsticks, you need to familiarize yourself with the provisions of etiquette. You should know that putting food on chopsticks is prohibited. If the food is in a common dish, you should not poke around in it, choosing the piece you like best. If the stick touches a piece, it must be eaten. Chinese chopsticks should not be stuck into food. And clenching them in a fist is perceived as a threatening gesture. Now you know how to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly and how to use them. We hope you will greatly enjoy your introduction to Eastern culture.

The incredible popularization of Asian cuisine is increasingly making our compatriots think about how to properly hold Chinese chopsticks in their hands so as not to cause confusion among others. After all, what the residents of Asia are instilled with early years for Europeans it is sometimes worse than Chinese literacy.

A little history

The history of the appearance of sticks, as well as the entire history of the Celestial Empire, is rooted in hoary antiquity. The first mentions of such a simple cutlery are found in manuscripts dating back to the 3rd millennium BC. Legends say that sticks owe their appearance to human intolerance.

The reluctance to wait for the tasty morsel to cool down forced the smart Chinese to grab it with the first object that came to hand. This item turned out to be a sprout of ordinary bamboo. Of course, the historical prototype only vaguely resembled its modern analogue. It was a fragment of a bamboo branch, split in the center and bent in half - a kind of tongs that ancient cooks used for cooking.

Then the bamboo branch bent in half was transformed into 2 separate fragments. Several thousand years passed before they migrated from the kitchens to the tables of the local aristocracy. In past centuries, representatives of the privileged classes were allowed to use cutlery. And only at the turn of the 7th – 8th centuries AD, sticks, which in the Middle Kingdom are called kuaizi, came to the people.

What are Chinese chopsticks made of?

But chopsticks are not only made from bamboo. Also used:

ivory;
sandalwood;
plastics;
precious and semi-precious metals;
wood of noble tree species.

Decorative Chinese chopsticks combine functional and aesthetic components. This is not just a household item, it is a real work of art. Inlaid precious stones or painted in the best traditions, they are the embodiment of the craftsmanship of the eastern people. Photos of collectible items once again confirm this fact.

Restaurants usually serve disposable wooden utensils called weisheng kuaizi. They have no decorative value, since their design is very simple and uncomplicated. A special feature of such sticks is the unfinished cut at the thickened base. Before starting a meal, weisheng kuaizi should be divided into 2 fragments and only then start eating rice, sushi or noodles.

Japanese chopsticks, called hashi, appeared in the country rising sun much later than in China. Japan acquired cutlery only by 500 AD.

How to eat with Chinese chopsticks instructions

IN last years All over the world, the irresistible desire of representatives of other nationalities to master such an unusual device is clearly visible. This is related to to a greater extent with the incredible popularization of Asian cuisine. Sushi and rolls, which were considered exotic food just a few decades ago, have now become firmly established in the diet of modern Europeans.

Practice holding chopsticks

Despite the fact that there are generally accepted rules that should be followed when learning to “control” sticks, improvisation has not been canceled.

A simple analogy can be made with writing. In first grade, we are all shown how to hold a ballpoint pen correctly. And we, observing the correct inclination, learn to write each letter. But very soon everyone develops their own individual writing style. Pay attention to how your friends or colleagues hold a pencil and pen, and you will be surprised to note that in this position there is very little left of what we were taught in elementary school.

It’s the same with kuazi. In order not to experience discomfort during a meal, before learning how to hold Chinese chopsticks, you need to try to find the most comfortable position for them on your fingers.

To do this, take the lower stick in your right hand so that its thickened end is in the area of the articulation of the large and index finger, protruding literally 2 - 3 cm, and pinch. Place the free edge at the base of the nail phalanx. If done correctly, it will be securely fixed, and the index and ring finger will be absolutely free.
At this stage of training, it doesn’t hurt to rotate these fingers, making sure that the clamped stick remains motionless and the little finger does not protrude.
After the first stage of training has been successfully completed, you can proceed to the next one. To do this, place the second stick on top of your middle and index fingers, and press with your thumb.
Adjust the position of the kuaizi relative to each other. The lower one should protrude literally 0.5 cm beyond the surface of the hand. This will allow you to perfectly align the pointed edges when grasping food and securely hold even the smallest pieces with the help of chopsticks. An indicator of virtuoso skill is the ability to lift grains of rice with the tips.

Detailed instructions with photos and a thematic video will help you understand unclear points.

Proper use of chopsticks

Chinese traditions imply the presence of common dishes with food on the table, from which all participants in the meal serve their own plates of food. And there seems to be nothing unusual about this, but small details should be remembered. It is forbidden:

mix the general food, looking for an appetizing piece;
take food from a common plate with used chopsticks;
twirl the chopstick over the plates, choosing where to start the meal;
Having touched any piece, leave it on a common dish; it must be eaten;
move the plates with chopsticks.

You should also pay attention to the position of your arms and hands during meals. Watch how you take food from a common dish. The fingers should be down, the chopsticks should be pointing vertically down, and the hands should be parallel to the surface of the table.

When you finish eating, do not place the kuaizi across the plate. Such a gesture will be perceived as a sign of disrespect. It is better to place it on a special stand, the name of which is hasioki.

Choosing the Right Sticks

But the degree of comfort during a meal depends not only on the correct position of the chopsticks in the fingers. Great importance has their size. In order to nimbly handle pieces of food, the ratio of the length of the fingers and the lengths of the fingers themselves, called kuaizi, must be in maximum compliance.

In restaurants, all visitors are served sticks 23 cm long. This perfect size for men of average height, the size of their palm is very often proportional to this length. But it is worth taking into account that the Chinese are significantly inferior in size to the Europeans. Therefore, such sticks may be too small for a large representative of the stronger sex of the Slavic people.
But for a small female palm, a length of 21 cm is quite suitable.
For children under 3 years old, the ideal size is 13 cm; by the age of 4, their length increases to 14 cm. By the age of 13, children may well resort to using twenty-centimeter devices.

To find out what size is needed for each specific case you need:

measure the distance from the thumb to the index finger with a ruler;
Increase the resulting distance by one and a half times;
The result of the multiplication will correspond to the required length.

Etiquette and taboos associated with chopsticks

Despite the fact that the Chinese are much more democratic than the conservative Japanese in matters related to food intake, and willingly forgive foreigners for minor mistakes and annoying misunderstandings, it does not hurt to remember the basic traditions and rules of behavior at the table, especially if you are planning a trip to such a distant country .

It is strictly unacceptable to prick pieces of food using a stick as an improvised fork. It’s better to ask for the usual cutlery.
It is unacceptable to stick chopsticks into rice. Typically, such an action accompanies burial procedures and is unlikely to be appropriate at a social dinner.
You should not knock them on the plate in the hope of attracting the waiter's attention. This gesture is characteristic of street beggars, but not of a respectable person.
Even during heated discussions at the table, you should not gesticulate or use chopsticks as a pointer, much less point them in the direction of the person or object being discussed.
Some Chinese allow themselves to pass fragments of food from chopsticks to chopsticks, but it is better to immediately eradicate such a habit. Japanese traditions Such actions are allowed only at a funeral funeral ceremony.

How do the Chinese eat soup?

Asian cuisine is famous not only for its main courses. A variety of soups, stews, noodles and even fish soup have earned no less popularity. First courses, often called misto, are also eaten with kuaizi. For this:

the bowl of food is taken in the hand and held suspended in the chest area;
First, drink the broth in slow sips;
then eat the solid ingredients with chopsticks.

It is customary to serve special porcelain spoons with some soups. In these cases, the process is greatly facilitated and becomes absolutely identical to the usual eating of soup.

Conclusion

Learning to use kuazi is not difficult at all. In China, even small children quickly eat with chopsticks, deftly moving their little fingers. All you need is a little patience, regular practice and a role model.

Chinese chopsticks are used not only in China, but in many eastern countries. And more recently, they have begun to be often used when eating food in the West. It's all because of Chinese exotic cuisine, which has received Lately wide use. And especially such a popular dish as sushi, which is difficult to eat without using chopsticks. Often people learn to use Chinese chopsticks for the first time when they encounter rolls, or if they are planning a trip to a Chinese restaurant (to feel more comfortable and confident there).

There is nothing difficult in learning to use this cutlery. You just need to understand how to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly and how to pick up food with them. It's really simple. This is no more difficult than learning to use ordinary cutlery: a spoon and a fork. Even when using these familiar devices for the first time, many may experience slight difficulties. You can even see this in a child when he scoops up food with a spoon a little awkwardly. The same will happen with Chinese chopsticks. But gradually you will get used to it. And if you often eat Chinese food with them, then after 1000 times of using them you will become a real ace in this matter. In this article, in addition to the question of how to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly, we will look at their history, learn about what they are like, what they are made of, and also get acquainted with some rules of etiquette.

The Chinese themselves begin to teach their children to hold chopsticks at the age of one, because such fine motor skills promotes better development in the child mental abilities. And scientists even managed to derive one formula that says that if to an inexperienced person Let him eat 1000 meals with Chinese chopsticks, then he will learn to use them just as well as with his own hands.

1. The hand in which you hold the chopsticks should not be tense. Otherwise, using them will become real hard labor for you. Remember this and relax your hand. Next, straighten it to right hand index and middle fingers, and slightly bend the little finger and ring finger.

2. Chinese chopsticks are placed in the hand parallel to each other. One is at the top (let's call it the top), and the other is at the bottom (bottom).

3. Place the bottom stick between the thumb and ring finger. Its thin edge should rest against the ring finger. The lower stick is fixed in this position. When taking food, it always remains static, that is, motionless.

4. But the upper stick, on the contrary, is movable. When capturing food, all movements are made by it. The upper stick should be positioned parallel to the lower one and held in the same way as we usually hold a pencil or pen. It is located between the thumb and index finger.

5. With the help of slight bends of the index finger, you can both bring the chopsticks together and pinch the food you want to put into your mouth. And even if you get a too large piece of food, you can carefully separate it with chopsticks.

All lovers of Asian food claim that if you eat it with chopsticks, you can taste the taste much better. But in order to verify this from your own experience, you need, of course, to learn how to use Chinese chopsticks. This skill will be useful even for those who are not planning to move to China, but are simply interested in culture.

Correct hand position

First you need to figure out how to properly hold this cutlery. If the sticks are not training, then they are not connected to each other. The first of them must be firmly fixed with two fingers: the thumb and forefinger. The stick should not slide. In fact, this situation is reminiscent of how each of us was taught to write with a pen in childhood. Only the stick should be located slightly lower than the handle. By the way, not everyone likes this method of fixation: some prefer to hold the stick between the ring and index fingers. Try both options and decide which is more convenient for you.

The second stick, unlike the first, must move. It is due to this that it will be possible to pick up food with cutlery. To make this easy, you need to place a second stick under thumb. As a result, the thin edges of the sticks should touch each other and not intersect. If it is difficult to align the position of the cutlery, tap the chopsticks on the table. This way they will settle down in your hand.

Training and practice

Before you try to pick up food, you need to practice using the chopsticks a little. Try closing and opening the sticks. The ends should always meet normally. Choose the hand position that is most comfortable for you. You can lower your fingers closer to the bottom edge, or, on the contrary, keep them almost at the very base. But remember that keeping your fingers close to the thin edges of the chopsticks is uncivil. main reason The problem is that with this position of the hands they practically touch the food, and this is simply unhygienic.

After you have practiced a little, you can learn to pick up food with chopsticks. You need to try to eat different types dishes. Simply because eating rice, for example, is more difficult than sushi or noodles. Experiment with different sizes and types of food. You need to start with something simpler, for example, chopped vegetables, fruits or pieces of fish. Then you can move on to more complex products. However, some, on the contrary, advise starting your training with small objects, arguing that if you learn complex things, then it will be much easier to master simple ones. Aerobatics– it’s neat and easy to eat rice and noodles with chopsticks. But this will happen only after a couple of weeks, or even months of constant practice. So learn something simpler. And only when you learn to deal normally with different dishes, go to a Chinese restaurant.

By the way, beginners are advised to use either wooden or bamboo sticks. They are light, but due to their slightly rough texture, they are very easy to pick up food and hold it. It is much more difficult to work with plastic and metal sticks. Therefore, there is no point in starting your training on them. Another interesting fact, which can help you: there are both disposable and reusable chopsticks. The latter must be handled with care. You can either buy them for yourself or find them in some Asian restaurant. Reusable chopsticks look very nice. Sometimes you can see real works of art, carefully polished and decorated with various patterns. Previously, they were often made from semi-precious and even precious metals. Nowadays, such cutlery is practically not used in everyday life. But the desire to decorate my cutlery and enjoy the little things in life remains.

Separately, it is worth discussing the issue of etiquette. For example, many people may find the peculiarities of sharing food at a Chinese table strange. Traditional lunch and festive table in Asia it is filled with large dishes. Initially, no one divides the food into portions, and everyone can take as much as they want. This must be done carefully. And it is important to remember that after you have already eaten with your chopsticks, it is very unsightly to put them into a common plate. Therefore, you need to either use other edges of the stick, or find it on the table common sticks that no one has eaten before. You can also use them to calmly pick up your refills and put the spare cutlery aside. Also remember that if the common plate is filled with a variety of food, then you need to choose what exactly you will serve before you put your chopsticks into the dish. You can’t pick at your food, choosing the tastiest morsels.

Many novice connoisseurs of Asian culture do not know what to do with chopsticks when they are not being used for eating. The Chinese, as well as other Asians, have many prejudices associated with feasts. So, for example, if you stick chopsticks into your food between meals, this will be perceived negatively. The fact is that such a gesture is a bad omen, because such a design looks like incense at a traditional Asian funeral.

Also, you should not pierce food with chopsticks or prick individual pieces on them. Remember, this is not a fork, and if you can’t pick up food with chopsticks, it’s better to ask to change the cutlery. Attempts to pierce food look very uncivilized if you look at this action through the eyes of an Asian. However, asking for a spoon or fork instead of chopsticks can also offend the feelings of your table neighbor. But the Chinese, nevertheless, are much more loyal to this than the Japanese, who honor all traditions.

You should also not try to pass food to someone by transferring it from one cutlery to another. This is also a funeral tradition, and such actions will be perceived negatively. The desire to point at someone with the sharp edges of chopsticks is also considered uncivilized. However, this should not be a culture shock for you, because such actions are considered ugly in any country. Actually, the best option is to simply place the chopsticks next to the plate when you are not eating food with them. You need to place the cutlery on the left side, without crossing the chopsticks.

The well-known Chinese chopsticks are used not only in China but also in many other eastern countries. And today they are very often used when eating in the West. Very a large number of both in our country and in other countries of the world, sushi bars are opening that serve very tasty exotic Chinese food, and in order to get maximum satisfaction from eating, you need to eat with Chinese chopsticks. But many who decide to try Chinese cuisine for the first time do not know how to use their cutlery, and in order not to look stupid they begin to look for ways quickly learn how to hold Chinese chopsticks.

Learning to use them is very simple, first you need to understand how to hold them in your hands, and then how to hold food with them.

How to hold Chinese chopsticks correctly

First, completely relax the hand in which you hold the chopsticks, otherwise you will never learn to use them. Next, straighten your index finger and middle finger, then bend your little finger and ring finger slightly.
The sticks should be parallel to each other in your hand. One stick is upper and the other is lower.
Place the bottom stick between your thumb and ring finger. The thin edge of the stick should rest against the ring finger. It must be fixed in this position and be motionless.
As for the top stick, everything is the other way around; it should be movable. It is with this that you capture all the food. Place the top stick parallel to the bottom and grip it the way you would hold a pencil or pen. It should lie between the thumb and index finger.
Then, with small bends of your index finger, you can bring the chopsticks together and pinch the food you so desire with them.