The social cost of extra chopsticks
How hard can it be to change the eating habits of millions of Chinese? Health officials in Hong Kong are finding out, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Chinese health officials are trying to change the way people eat, pushing a utensil they hope will stem disease outbreaks: an extra pair of chopsticks.
At restaurants and homes, Chinese meals are dished up family-style, with serving platters in the center of the table. Most diners pluck their dumplings and stir-fries out of the platters and onto individual plates or bowls of rice. They use the same chopsticks to put the morsels in their mouths, often going back to the serving platter for seconds and thirds.
Following an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, two years ago, officials worried the habit can transmit diseases. ...
Serving chopsticks aren't new to China. Usually, they look exactly like regular chopsticks, although they sometimes come in different colors. They have long been used for special occasions like business dinners or banquets, or by families who eat their meals more formally. But most Chinese eating at home or at restaurants shun them.
In China, sharing food is all about strengthening family and business bonds. Using a separate pair of serving chopsticks can be a bit of an affront -- a little like showing up at the family table with a surgical mask. A few diners stake out a middle ground and flip their chopsticks when they serve themselves or others at the table.
Category: You can't make this stuff up
Posted by Brian Chin at August 12, 2005 01:44 PM
Besides encouraging the use of GongFai (public serving [del]spoons[del] chopsticks, they have also tried to encourge the use of runcible spoons in college cafes.
One of the big issue, more so in Japan, is the throwaway use of dispoable wooden chopsticks deforesting whole regions, including aspen woods in North America, just for the sake of hygiene.
In China, disposable chopsticks are at least burnt in the wood fire for the next meal, so they get a second use.
In America it is overuse of one-time bleached paper to enclose food, wipe up after oneself and so on.
How often does a bout of salmonella be just shrugged off in the greater China as a normal thing a few days a month, when it is the lack of hygiene between people and their chickens.
On the latter see the avian flu flooding into Seattle schools as the birds land in the upper Hood Canal and pass things on to the domestic creatures.
