Chinese Dining Etiquette : Chinese Dining Etiquette: Using Chop Sticks

[Jadespeakschinese]

okay good I'm a lefty but American so I can pass :P

[wingwaabuddha]

An expert who isnt an expert

[m00se321]

just order out Same thing ,,same taste

[nameless0shelter]

time is changing , nowadays chinese people using chop sticks in left hand

[567watcher]

Watch this one by VideoJug. It's a far better one on how to use chopsticks and about Chinese dining etiquette.

How to Use Chopsticks

w w w . youtube . com / watch?v=5Y9HO-c0dxU&feature=re­lated

[567watcher]

The meal he's been talking about is about Cantonese banquette only. Normally a nice expensive meal comes with soup, several dishes and rice in HK.

[NoemieGanXD]

using left hand is rude??? i've never heard that in my life, btw, im chn

[happyey]

there're many left-hand Chinese nowadays.

[BoxerMonkey]

is it just me, or does this guy seem to not know SHIT about what he's talkin about

[TheJosewario]

this is Japanese cuisine you dumb asss(bakaaaaa)

[janineaaaaaaa]

Does this etiquette apply to eating monkey brains and cats, too?

[NoemieGanXD]

@janineaaaaaaa not many ppl eat that kind of food, as far as i know, most of chn ppl disgust those kinds of food. furthermore, it's illegal to trade or kill monkey. what else do u know abt chinese, btw?

[MrTerryKay]

No it's not OK. Grrrr! You're a sinister sinistral. An evil abhoration that should have been burnt at the steakhouse.

Just joking.

It does seem strange though. I'd imagine you eat with a knife and fork like righties. Surely learning to be dextrous with dextral chopsticks would be just a bit more challenging. If Chinese people were lefties, I'd either learn left handed or ask for a spoon.

That rant over, it is a good instructional video.

[MrTerryKay]

@MrTerryKay

Also if the food morsel is too big, instead of putting this half chewed item back into your bowl, it's OK to lob it at the staff. They've made it too large and therefore, the etiquette faux pas is theirs, not yours.

[jenn3rzx3]

A lot of things being said in this video is definitely wrong. Just because you are foreign, does not mean you should just "do it" and that "it's okay." You're supposed to be adapting to the culture as much as possible, but I have not heard of anyone biting something and putting it back into the plate. And for you to say "NO CHINESE PEOPLE" eat with their left hand, is also wrong. Please don't listen to what this guy says because that's not how to you should act going into a foreign country.

[yumejitheme]

it's not just okay to pick up the bowl to eat the rice! it's a MUST! it's bloody rude to eat with the bowl on the table.

and save me from this guy!!

he says you can STAB your food! he just murdered all forms of etiquette

[gsoo]

I'm chinese and I have never eaten something and put it back in the common plate. That is disgusting. Please do not do it.

[BlueMicrowave]

This video talks about how foreigners should eat with Chinese people. It's okay as long as they know you're foreign. However, I was taught that it's not okay to stab your food with chopsticks. I was also taught not to bite food then put it back down. It's usually small enough to eat whole. Otherwise, we'd cut it with a knife on our plate and transfer it to our bowl.

[nakata70]

I know lots of Chinese people that are left-handed. In fact Left-handeness is celebrated in China due to the fact that Chinese people write from right to left not left to right.

[FrACt05]

It is NOT Chinese dining etiquette to pick up something, bite it and put it back on the plate for others to eat. If it's your own plate or bowl, you do what you want with it, otherwise it's just gross. Why is that? Because you can't cut large pieces of meat with chopsticks, you bite a piece and let it rest on your own bowl or plate.

[kakuoh]

...what he's talking about is a banquet not a restaurant. no one uses a rotating table except for banquets...and large celebratio npartys stuff like that. also, it is customary to provide a bowl of white rice in the middle of the meal. then, at the end of the meal, they bring out fried rice and/or but in my experience both, fried noodles...(is that what you call it?)

[cypresspeter2008]

the hand could be positioned alittle higher towards the nonpointed end----holding it in the middle is kind of kid like (sort of like five fingering a silver ware like a caveman)---and u can hold it on the left

[toasterder]

what the heck is he.... nm...

No, you do not 'even-up' your chopsticks via taping it on anything ever. Stabbing = for noobs, and also shows a lack of patience/skill/elegance.

Reason for that is that stabbing into a pile of whatever resemble the putting of joss sticks into a pot. The worst thing to do is to stab and leave your chopstick standing in your food.

Also, taping the chopsticks/utensils on the dishes/tables supposedly calls for 'spirits' to come to dine. Not nice.

[YukiHimeX3]

I'm chinese, and i don't think that its ok to bite something and just put it back o.o thats kind of gross........bleh XP

[osmodivs]

@YukiHimeX3 You must be chinese-american, or a chinese who likes america too much. Even Jet Li does that!!

[Rab1975bit]

@YukiHimeX3

He should've explained that clearly. He means it's okay to put it back into your own bowl or plate, not the main plates where the food is served.

To Westerners it's kinda rude to cut a piece that doesn't fit into your mouth and take a bite of it and put the rest back down. They may not know Chinese food is usually served pre-cut. He's just explaining to Westerners that it's acceptable to do that but he should've made it clear that it's only okay to put it in your OWN bowl or plate.

[volcano12345]

this is so bull o.o some chinese ppl uses their left hand to use the chop stick and also with the restaurant and home comparison there is no difference at all >.>

[LegendsXXboy]

bullshit

[vistory]

holding the bowl up to your mouth is not proper. has sth to do with the 'poorer' workers who eat standing up or any other way besides sitting on a dining table, thats why the holding up of the bowl.

[taloc00000]

this guy in the video's a moron, but by 'putting it back on the plate' he means putting it back on your OWN plate, not taking a hunk out of the duck and throwing it back onto the main platter. haha.

[hiromiao]

ok Puting food back in the plate is so so wrong it is considered rude. (if its your own plate then its ok)

Also putting your mouth close to the bowl and scooping it in is considered low class.

This is how you tell the difference between well mannered Chinese and some hick who just began rich.

[RapidEyesCream]

its not okay to stab it, unless its an informal environment. and if you get them wooden chopsticks (the one where you snap off) NEVER rub the splinters against each other in front of the host (if you were eating at somebodys house). you can rub off the splinters in a restaurant however.

[kucherenko]

I stopped after watching when he said "no chinese are left handed.."

My mom is very chinese, and very left handed

[aiepik]

I am chinese and there is something to using right hand. Using right hand is prefered because when you are sitting next to someone, you don't want to "fight" (you using left hand and they use right hand).

Of course you can use chopstick with left hands, but the more traditional/prefered way is to use your right hand.

[Valstina]

Well if you kept watching you would see where it said "because they are raised right-handed from a very young age." So if your mom wasn't raised as a righty, she'd obviously not necessarily be a righty.

[kulaa]

NOT TRUE...plz disregard what he said in this video

[Ricangal]

you are a sweet man

[daxiwanghuilang]

You absolutely don't know Chinese dining etiquette at all!

"no Chinese people are left handed"

"pick up something, bite off, and put it back"

"it's ok to just stab it"

Who taught you all of that?

1. many Chinese people are left handed

2. it could never happen in China that putting the food back into the plate after a bite, how gross would that be! if you do this, no one will eat with you again.

3. never STABING food on a Chinese dinning table! Instead, you can use a spoon to scoop it.

[superA2T]

actually,

1)it is traditional for people who are actually chinese chinese [olden days...or just super chinese] to only use the right hand. Unless the chinese has been americanized, then its not okay to use the left hand. Its considered rude.

[superA2T]

2)it always happens in China and for the chinese to bite it and then put it back onto the plate. This is because there are no seperate/other utensils exept for the soup spoon on a traditional chinese table dining set.

[superA2T]

3)Stabbing food on a chinese dinning table is okay. Your not stabbing it like you do with a hard piece of steak and knife, you do it softly so that it is silent. Its to pick up objects such as dim sum dumpling so that they do not slip. You just cant like literally stab it like a piece of meat.

[superA2T]

Remeber how i said traditional so much, i actually mean traditional. These etiquette rules apply to oldern chinese traditions. Many now consider some of these acts rude, because they have been influenced by the american/continental way of eating.

source: im an american chinese however; i am first generation american, therefore my elder relatives and ones whove taught me are direct chinese descendants, and still follow these rules. (even though i dont....i also think many things are rude)

[toasterder]

No fear, stabbing and chopstick-sweeping has always been considered 'lower-class' acceptable triats.

For 'higher-class', Hastiness is considered very rude. Its like saying 'damn, I gota get outa here asap.'

Besides, proper use of chopsticks without stabbing is considered etiquette and high-class solely for the fact that one has at least mastered the art to a certain degree of expertise. Nothing is too slippery for a good chopstick user.

Btw, he hasn't explained how to pick up food that drip.

[mizukofuyu]

wait, they dont actually put the bitten thing back onto the plate with all the other unbitten things, do they? they put it on their own eating plate right?

[superA2T]

well... basically there are main dishes that everyone shares on the rotating circle food placer thing. so people use chopsticks take the food and put it on their own personal plate. And on that plate is where they bite the food and then put it back on the plate.

[poosaypirate]

@superA2T well my understanding was you take from the communal area ( supposed to be with the HEELS of your chopsticks (!!) and then you add that to your rice bowl

such details are going to be vastly variant according to the many factors which can influence the situation

[kakuoh]

noo! no one puts food back in the main plate. i dont know what he's talking about in your OWN bowl or plate!! that is just gross and rude.

[RapidEyesCream]

my cousin was originally left handed but got converted at a young age lulz~

[galezhang]

Well... There ARE left-handed Chinese!!! It's mostly only with the writing but eating with your left hand is perfectly fine!!