Chopsticks

Title: Chopsticks in Chinese Culture

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre
    • Verbal Folklore: Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: China

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a sophomore at Dartmouth College and is 19 years old. He was originally born in Beijing, China, but moved to Massachusetts, U.S. when he was six years old. He is currently studying economics and mathematics with the intent to pursue a career in finance following graduation.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: When he was eating rice as a child, his parents warned him to not poke the chopsticks to the bottom of the bowl, and especially not to stab them into the bowl such that they stand upright.
  • Cultural Context: when one visits a deceased individual, it is customary in Chinese culture to burn incense. Chopsticks resemble the shape and form of incense.

Item:

  • In Chinese culture, it is said to be bad luck when one puts chopsticks through the rice such that it touches the bottom of the bowl.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

Informant’s Comments:

  • The incense sticks that are burned to mourn the dead is related to the chopsticks that are used to eat rice. By sticking chopsticks down to the bowl, it is believed you or someone related will be dead in the future.

Collector’s Comments:

  •  This superstition seems to be connected with homeopathic magic, for what is done with chopsticks is like what is done with incense because the two are similar in form.

Collector’s Name: Leo Lei

Tags/Keywords:

  • good/bad/luck/chinese/china/beijing/chopsticks/deceased/burn/incense/rice/bowl/ancestors/death

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