Because they use chopsticks to eat, which necessitates either cutting the food into chopstick-sized pieces, or cooking meat until it's so tender it can be taken apart with chopsticks.

Europeans used a knife and a piece of bread, or two knives, and maybe a spoon, at least until about 1300 on, when the fork meandered its way across the continent, finally reaching England around 1600.

Source: The Evolution of Useful Things, Petroski