Chinese Dining Etiquette: Using Chop Sticks

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Mark Kemsley. We're talking about the etiquette of eating with Chinese people. And, let's sort of talk about utensils and how you actually eat. You've probably seen chop sticks before, here are a couple of pairs. This is a very simple bamboo set of chop sticks, like you normally see in somebody's home. This pair is just a little bit nicer, the kind of chop sticks that they would have, if they had guests over. Everyday eating, they would use something simple like this. Now, how do you use the chop sticks? Let's talk about this, just for a minute. The first thing I'm doing wrong is I'm using my left hand, I happen to be left handed and there are no Chinese people who are left handed because from the time they are young, they are forced to write and to eat with their right hand, no matter what hand they use naturally. So, you will always see Chinese people eating with their right hand and because you're a foreigner, it's ok. if you eat with your left hand, like I do. Now, how do you use the chop stick? The first thing you do is set the first piece in your hand. Now, it's, doesn't move, it's solid, it goes between your index finger and your thumb and then rests on your ring finger here, and it doesn't move; it's very tight. What moves is the other piece of chop stick. Now, this, most westerners don't understand, they believe that both pieces are moving. Between your thumb and your two fingers here you can just move it back and forth, move it up and down. If you got a situation where it doesn't look like they are even you can just put it down like that, pressing on a table or on a dish and it will just even the two pieces out. So, the one is solid and stable, it doesn't move and the other moves like this and it's very simple, even though it may look a little difficult or be a little awkward at first to pick something up. I've just got some almonds here, almonds are a little bit difficult because of the shape and consistency of them but, it's actually not too difficult to pick up an almond or anything else like this, with a chop stick. And, if something is a little bit difficult to pick up, it's o.k. to stab it, that doesn't matter, Chinese people do it too. According to western etiquette anything that goes in your mouth, stays in your mouth. But, that's not true among the Chinese. If you wanted to eat something, you could actually pick up a piece of it, bite off of it, and put it back in. I wouldn't do that with an almond obviously, but with a piece of meat, I might pick it up, bite off of it and put it back down on the plate. That's not a problem at all. And, even with a bowl of rice, if you're eating rice with your meal or even soup, it's o.k. to pick up the bowl like this, and you pick it up in your hand, you don't pick it, like with your fingers like an American might. You put your hand underneath it, to pick up a bowl of rice and it's perfectly o.k. to scoop the rice into your mouth from the bowl. It's not a problem. Now, when you eat at a restaurant, if you're ordering, if you're the host for example: you may notice that people do not eat the same way that they eat at home. At home they have their rice and all their food together, in fact, that's how Chinese food was designed to be eaten. But, in restaurants, normally they will not have rice until the very end. They'll have all the dishes out, they will eat the food and then at the very end you either have five noodles or rice to make sure that everybody gets full. That's a better way to do it because it's an indication to the people you've invited to the meal that I'm going to give you a nice meal, not just fill you up on rice."