Why do Chinese people eat with chop sticks and sit on the floor when they eat?

Question

I was watching a Cooking program (Rick Stein) last night where he went to china & had to cook for some of the highest known people in china, & there were all sitting on the floor eating with chop sticks which made me think, why? why don't they eat with a knife and folk & sit on a chair or vise versa ?

Answer 1

I have lived in China for the last three and a half years and I am a keen observer who asks a lot of questions. Most Chinese say they follow their traditions because they like them and they think their traditions are really better than any other traditions. This goes for chopsticks use. They have been using chopsticks for at least 3,000 years although they will say 5,000 years because that seems to be their pat answer for how long anything has been going on in China.

As far as sitting on the floor, I have lived in western and eastern China and traveled to six provinces and I have never seen anyone sitting on the floor. They sit on chairs and stools. But some of the stools they use are as low as 4 inches so it may look as though they are sitting on the floor.

Not only the Chinese eat with chopsticks but also Koreans and Japanese. Some people in southeast Asia eat with chopsticks but most of the city people eat with fork while many of the country folks use their hands. Many western people are not comfortable using chopsticks because they did not grow up using them so they think the Chinese must be daft to use them. In fact, most Chinese find forks unmanageable and use chopsticks as smoothly as a kid in America uses a Gameboy.

Answer 2

Chinese don't sit on the floor, Japanese are the ones who sit on the floor. Chinese sit on the chair because the Chinese copied the Persians' habit of sitting on the chair during the Tang period.

Chinese eat with chopsticks is because the Chinese believe that eating with hands or fork and knives are the sign of barbaric customs. Chinese believes that fork is a fighting weapon, shouldn't be used for eating. Chinese believes that eating with hands is are dirty. So, they use chopsticks for eating.

Answer 3

Rick Stein was in Japan. The Chinese and the Japanese have used chopsticks for thousands of years, when 'civilised' westerners were still living in caves and using their fingers. The Japanese sit at low tables because they believe it aids digestion. With crossed legs, more blood is concentrated on the digestive organs. Never encountered a Chinese who didn't eat at a table, sitting on a western height chair.

Answer 4

I have travelled and worked in countries like Japan, China, and Hong Kong, but have never seen any Chinese people sitting on the floor while they are eating. You must watch too much TV. Only Japanese people would sit on the floor ocusionally when they are eating because that is what they used to do many many many years ago.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

That's Thailand and Japan, and those were old times. Now people use chairs. Back then, they didn't have metal/steel utensils, they only had bamboo and wood.