Chinese 'must swap chopsticks for knife and fork'

Ray

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Chinese 'must swap chopsticks for knife and fork'

It is a battle that has divided East and West for centuries: Are chopsticks superior to the knife and fork? Now the debate may finally be decided, on environmental grounds.


With 1.4 billion people ploughing through 80 billion pairs of throwaway chopsticks each year, China has admitted its forests can no longer provide enough cutlery for its dinner tables.

"We must change our consumption habits and encourage people to carry their own tableware," said Bo Guangxin, the chairman of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, to his fellow delegates at the National People's Congress.

Pointing out that only 4,000 chopsticks can be carved from a 20-year-old tree, he even went so far as to suggest that restaurants offered metal knives and forks instead.

If Mr Bo's suggestion is widely adopted, it would be a dark moment in the chopstick's 4,000-year history.

It was Da Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, who is said to have first used two sticks to eat his food in roughly 2100 BC.

It was an invention born of urgency. In his rush to reach a flood zone, Da Yu did not want to wait for his meat in his wok to cool, instead seizing a pair of twigs and wolfing down his meal.

Chopsticks quickly became popular around Asia. However Chinese chopsticks are longer than their Korean and Japanese counterparts in order to reach the communal dishes in the centre of the table. Koreans also often use metal chopsticks because of their love of barbecue.

The fork, meanwhile, is said to have been invented by the Romans, but did not become common in northern Europe until the 18th century.
Catherine de Medici is said to have taken the fork with her from Florence to France in the 16th century, when she married Henri II, along with many of her chefs, a moment that many Italians claim as the genesis of French cuisine.

Today, however, China is chopping down 20 million mature trees a year to feed its disposable chopstick habit, according to Mr Bo.

Nor can China find enough wood in its own forests. China is now the world's largest importer of wood and even imports chopsticks from America, where a company in Georgia realised that the state's native gum wood would be perfectly suited to make the utensil.

A previous estimate from China's state forestry administration, based on statistics from 2004 to 2009, put the yearly total at 57 billion disposable chopsticks, a much lower sum.

Then again, as the comedian Jerry Seinfeld once joked, parting the Chinese from their chopsticks is no mean feat.

"They're hanging in there with the chopsticks, aren't they? You know they've seen the fork. They're staying with the sticks.

"I don't know how they missed it. Chinese farmer gets up, works in the field with a shovel all day. Shovel. Spoon. Come on. You're not plowing 40 acres with a couple of pool cues!"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-must-swap-chopsticks-for-knife-and-fork.html

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The argument that the Chinese should discard chopsticks for fork and knife is fallacious.

Mr Bo, who has suggested it to save forests is possibly one of China's noveau riche who thinks it is chic to ape the West and make a virtue of the same?

One should not discard ancient culture and traditions to be acceptable to others.

Chopsticks can be made of many other material than merely being based on wood.

I have ivory, bamboo, wooden and plastic chopsticks myself.

Mr Bo may like to explain how many trees and forest are cut to make toilet paper?

If there wasn't the use of toilet paper, would not a lot of trees and forests be saved?

Is God given water to mortifying for Mr Bo?
 

libindi

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Damn,finally this post got some replies,i hope RAY now feels warmer。
 

huaxia rox

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Funny title
yes. the whole artile is advocating chinese should use normal chopsticks instead of disposable wood chopstick.

how ever i think the more funny thing is why prc hasnt joined the british common wealth yet?

so we can celabrit white queens birthday then add english as offical language.

then rename all the border names we have now so colonizers from the uk that killed many asians in the last couples of centries can be honored in this way like mr Macmahon.

then our nation can be totally westernized!!!
 

Bhadra

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@huaxia rox

History is history..
One can improve upon it but can not deny it...

If Chinese were not conscious of their miserable opium delusional past, they would not have made efforts to improve their lot....

Using spoon and fork will give impetus to Chinese steel Industry and reduce cutting trees for those horrible pricking sticks.

There is no harm in history.

India does not ask China to follow McMahon Line but follow traditional Himalayan Watershed as natural boundry between India, Tibet autonomous region and Xinjian
 
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Bhadra

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that is mostly welcomed!

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India has a vast reserve of unexploited Bamboo which goes waste.. that can be supplied to China so that they make houses so that poor do not stay in containers
 

nimo_cn

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India has a vast reserve of unexploited Bamboo which goes waste.. that can be supplied to China so that they make houses so that poor do not stay in containers
Indeed, that is very generous, if Indians do that for free, it will be much better.

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2
 

MAYURA

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then rename all the border names we have now so colonizers from the uk that killed many asians in the last couples of centries can be honored in this way like mr Macmahon.

then our nation can be totally westernized!!!

Your nation is totally westernized as anyone who has studied chinese history can tell you. you are westernized men who hate west, it is as simple as that.
 

civfanatic

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Your nation is totally westernized as anyone who has studied chinese history can tell you. you are westernized men who hate west, it is as simple as that.
India is far more Westernized than China is, though both are obviously Westernized to a certain degree.

Only countries like the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan are/were totally free of Westernization, and most people would not want to live in such places.
 

mylegend

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I have seen people use them, but they are heavy, and I don't feel comfortable with them.

The Korean prefer metal chopsticks. As of alternative to wood for the sack of environment, the fact remain most wooden chopstick at home is washable. One alternative that is common is plastic, because its weight is closer to wood. Many restaurant used them, some people used plastic chopstick at home.

The problem is not wooden plastic, it is wooden disposable plastic.
 

Bhadra

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Indeed, that is very generous, if Indians do that for free, it will be much better.

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Free ! what does China give for free ? Wars and intrusion on borders only !
 

pmaitra

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The Korean prefer metal chopsticks. As of alternative to wood for the sack of environment, the fact remain most wooden chopstick at home is washable. One alternative that is common is plastic, because its weight is closer to wood. Many restaurant used them, some people used plastic chopstick at home.

The problem is not wooden plastic, it is wooden disposable plastic.
I had a Taiwanese friend who used metal chopsticks. I personally use a wooden pair, but they are really well decorated. I also wash them, and they seem to be holding up pretty well.
 

Ray

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I have all types of chopsticks to include inland ivory.

I prefer using chopsticks when partaking in the Chinese cuisine.

Surprisingly, I am yet to see metal chopsticks.
 

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