Reprinted from the author of baijiahao: history and literature Langya Pavilion chopsticks are necessary food utensils in Chinese life
According to statistics, more than 1.8 billion people around the world are using chopsticks
Influenced by Chinese culture, chopsticks are used in many countries in East and Southeast Asia
Among them, China, Japan and South Korea are the most popular, but the chopsticks cultures of these three countries are quite different.
We must be sure that the Chinese are the inventor of chopsticks and the ancestor of chopsticks culture
Chinese chopsticks have obvious shape characteristics
Compared with Japan and South Korea, Chinese chopsticks are long and straight, with round head, which implies the cultural belief of "Tianyuan and local".
Chinese chopsticks culture according to the current archaeological discovery, Chinese people have started to use bronze chopsticks since the mid Shang Dynasty more than 3400 years ago
Chinese archaeologists unearthed chopsticks from the Wuding period of the Shang Dynasty at the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province
According to Han Feizi, an ancient book of the pre Qin Dynasty, the former Zhou was an elephant sheath, which indicates that there were at least three kinds of chopsticks made of bronze, wood and ivory in the period of King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty.
There are many taboo customs in Chinese chopsticks culture, such as: avoid using chopsticks of different lengths, forbid using chopsticks to point, forbid using chopsticks to knock dishes, forbid putting chopsticks on Rice... On the surface, it is only feudal superstition and traditional etiquette formed in ancient times, but chopsticks represent the life culture formed by Chinese people for thousands of years.
Compared with western cutlery, Chinese chopsticks are "needed for clamping", knives and forks are "invaded and split", which is also in line with the characteristics of "moderation" and "introverted" of Chinese culture.
Therefore, in 2015, Shanghai, China has proposed to apply chopsticks culture as the intangible cultural heritage of the United Nations
Japan has the highest use of chopsticks except China
Its diet culture has a deep origin with China. It has been used for reference and learning since the Han Dynasty, and reached its peak in the early Yuan Dynasty of the Tang Dynasty.
Japanese chopsticks although Japanese chopsticks come from China, they are obviously different in appearance: they are about half the length of Chinese chopsticks, and their heads are generally pointed
This is because Japanese people do not have round table meals like Chinese people. Most of them have a separate meal system. They only eat the food in front of their eyes, do not need to pick up the food in the distance, and naturally do not need long chopsticks.
For a long time in ancient times, the Japanese were forbidden to eat meat such as beef, pork and chicken, but not fish. The Japanese used sharp chopsticks to remove fish bones more easily.
In addition, the Japanese like to use wooden chopsticks most, especially the convenient disposable chopsticks
Of course, the Japanese attach great importance to environmental protection. The disposable chopsticks and raw materials they use are all imported from China and Southeast Asia, and they will never use the wood made in Japan.
Korean chopsticks Korean chopsticks also have significant localization characteristics
The most obvious thing is that Korean chopsticks are basically made of metal
According to South Korean friends, even though South Korea is very poor in history, the poor often use metal chopsticks
On the one hand, Korean people think that metal chopsticks can be made very delicate and show their identity when they are used.
On the other hand, Koreans love barbecue, and metal chopsticks are more suitable for barbecue
Chinese ancient chopsticks Koreans attach great importance to the inheritance of chopsticks culture
On the Chinese Internet, there has been a lot of news that South Korea claims chopsticks originated in South Korea and intends to apply for UN intangible cultural heritage. It's unknown whether it's true or not.
However, in 2015, South Korea invited folk experts from China and Japan to hold an "International Symposium on chopsticks" to discuss the joint application of China, Japan and South Korea for the world heritage of chopsticks
Later, the international chopsticks festival was set up in Qingzhou, South Korea, on November 11 every year