Nobody taught me to hold my chopsticks when I was a kid
You know we all take chopsticks for granted. It is such a part of our Chinese culture that we don’t even bother to teach our kids how to hold their chopsticks. How many of you actually remember your father sitting you down one day and saying to you, “Son, now that you have come of age, daddy is going to show you how to hold a pair of chopsticks”? No, more often than not, we all just pick up a pair of chopsticks one day and started using them. Unfortunately, it is for that reason that a lot of people, myself included, ended up holding chopsticks crossed like the photo above!
I had to learn it myself when I grew up!
I came to the realization that I was indeed holding my chopsticks wrongly twenty years ago and re-learned to hold it properly. I guess there would be many of us who are like that. There will be others who have never thought about it until now and then there are others who would give all sorts of excuses to justify why holding chopsticks crossed is alright.
Pragmatist: As long as I can still eat, I don’t care.
Universalist: There is no one right way to hold chopsticks.
Anti-establishment: I purposely cross just because you said not to.
Boh Chapist: Can’t be bothered to learn. Anyway who cares?
Environmentalist: Don’t use chopsticks! Save the forest.
Aware-an: We must be all inclusive! How dare you say we have to hold our chopsticks straight?
Ironically, because the Ang Mohs all learnt to hold chopsticks formally, I have never seen any of my Ang Moh friends holding the chopsticks crossed! So it really is just a matter of Chinese pride that we should try to hold our chopsticks correctly. Don’t you all agree?
So how do you hold your chopsticks? Let us know by taking part in our polls!
For those who want to learn how to hold their chopsticks properly, here is a good video:
Many thanks to GSKgirl1 and GSKgirl2 for modeling their chopstick poses!
