Why are chopsticks used at dining tables in most of Eastern Asia, but not Vietnam?

by ZnSaucier
wotan_weevil

Chopsticks are used for eating in Vietnam, and see more use than in China. Compared to China, spoons appear less often o the table, so chopsticks play a bigger role. In the rest of the Sinosphere, Japan makes less use of spoons than even Vietnam, and in Korea the spoon in ubiquitous. To the north, in Manchuria and Mongolia, chopsticks are accompanied by knives or by knives and spoons.

The early history of chopsticks isn't known, due to scant literary sources, and few unambiguous archaeological finds. For example, some early candidates for bone chopsticks have been found, but were possibly hairpins or clothespins. Where they were found in a burial in the region of the head, "hairpin" is a reasonably safe conclusion. Where they are found near the hands, along with other everyday implements, "chopsticks" is more likely than "hairpin", but still not the only conclusion. For example, they might have been used for food preparation, and not for eating. Neolithic chopsticks in China are likely, and Shang chopsticks are almost certain. Absolutely unambiguous evidence is present in the Zhou. By Zhou and Han, bamboo and wood chopsticks were common according to literary sources, but are scarce in archaeology (because bamboo and wood don't last as well as bone, ivory, and bronze). Bamboo chopsticks first appear in the Zhou, and are more commonly found during Han - again, preservation bias matters.

The spoon predates chopsticks in China; spoons about 10,000 years old have been found, made from bone. The most common early spoon, the bi, had a pointed bowl, and was probably multi-functional, also used for cutting. An example of a Zhou bi:

many thousands of years younger than the earliest ones known, but still with the pointy bowl.

Knives and forks also appear to have been use for dining, from the Neolithic, but were less common than spoons, and less common than chopsticks once chopsticks became widely used. By the late Zhou period, knives had largely disappeared from the dining table, doing their work in the kitchen. This was accompanied by wider use of chopsticks. The fork stayed in the Chinese dining room for longer, lasting into the Han Dynasty, and possibly even later.

Interesting, in Zhou and Han China, dining etiquette prescribed not using chopsticks for grain. The main grain at the time was millet, and was supposed to be eaten using the fingers (if steamed) or spoon (if boiled, when it would be mushier or porridge-like). As wheat became more common, steamed bread and dumplings could also easily be eaten with the fingers. As chopsticks moved south, and rice spread north, chopsticks became more important, since they were used for eating rice. By about the end of the Han Dynasty, the use of the fingers for eating had ceased to be proper dining etiquette.

This set the stage for chopsticks moving to Vietnam, probably with the Han conquest of northern Vietnam. Chinese rule continued for many centuries, and led to significant Sinicisation. This included the probably introduction of chopsticks (there's no evidence of earlier chopsticks in Vietnam), and a switch from fingers to utensils for eating, mostly chopsticks.

Some people eating with chopsticks in Vietnam:

Spoons do appear, but not as often as in China. Here, each dinner has a Chinese-style porcelain (or plastic) spoon:

and they are common at fancy meals. Here are two dining settings with Western-style spoons:

Of course, all of the diners in the above 3 examples have chopsticks as well.

Here, one of the diners on a train is using chopsticks and a plastic spoon together, while the other are using chopsticks:

Noodle soups appear to usually be eaten with both chopsticks and spoon:

often holding the chopsticks in the right hand and the spoon in the left.

Spoons also appear at the table as serving implements, rather than for eating with:

and chopsticks, including specialised chopsticks are used for serving. Here:

there is a spoon for serving soup, flat chopsticks for serving rice (today, a spoon is common for serving rice), and the regular chopsticks are for the diners to take food from shared plates (and to put the food into their own bowl, return the communal chopsticks to the original dish, and then eat with the own chopsticks).

Chopsticks are also used for cooking, as in China and elsewhere:

Finally, there are some foods that are eaten without chopsticks:

For more on the history of chopsticks, see

  • Q. Edward Wang, Chopsticks : a cultural and culinary history, Cambridge University Press, 2015.

This book focusses on China, but does cover chopsticks in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, and also covers the modern spread of chopsticks to the West.