History of Chopsticks

Series Summary

Invented in China, chopsticks have been used for hundreds of years in several countries in East Asia including Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand. They are made from wood, metal, plastic, bone, jade, ivory or bamboo and have different lengths depending on their purpose. Shorter chopsticks are used for eating and longer ones for cooking. They are two equal length tapered sticks with the narrow ends being used to pick up small pieces of food while the thicker ends are held.

This video series will give a brief history of chopsticks and their uses over the centuries as well as tips and techniques on holding them and how to use them with different types of food. It will show table etiquette with chopsticks when eating alone or with a group and give demonstrations on how they are used.

Video Transcript

" This is Peter and Mr. Jie Zhang and we are glad to be here to talk about the chopsticks for expertvillage.com. First, let me introduce the history of the chopsticks. Long, long time ago Chinese chopped the bamboo from the mountain and had food and later years after years, the chopsticks chopped wild and lots of decorations, on the bottom and on the top, on the medium. So right now, the chopsticks a lots of can materials, not only the bamboo; they come made from wood, made from plastic, and a lot of style and we come from Chinese restaurant, Mandarin Wok in Fontana."