GOOD-BYE CHOPSTICKS
China is forsaking the chopstick for the fork. The townsfolk are fastening on to the fork hungrily. Only the sturdy old peasants and farmers still stick to the chopsticks for feasts and fingers for common use. 'ln this they are preserving the custom of , our own Tudor times, when the fork was thought a finicking invention from Italy, and even kings found fingers handier. China had a more civilised etiquette than Europe then, and the handling of the chopsticks was quite a ceremony, Tlie Chinese call these pairs of small tapering sticks kWai tszej meaning quick ones. Held between the thumb and fingers of the right hand, they are used to take up bits of the food which is brought to table cut up into small pieces. Or they may be employed as tongs to sweep the rice into the mouth. Many years ago we saw more than once the chopsticks wielded in proper fashion by a great old Chinese gentleman, Li Hung Chang, when he came as Chinese Envoy to England. He would sit at a banquet given by the Lord Mayor in his honour, with his bowl of rice and chicken before him, hand-
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 8 (Supplement)
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198GOOD-BYE CHOPSTICKS New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 8 (Supplement)
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