Chopsticks, the eating utensils of choice in parts of East Asia, are pairs of equal – length sticks. These sticks are made up of plastic, bamboo, wood or sometimes stainless steel, but these sticks are also made up of gold, silver, and titanium, jade, ivory or porcelain – but these are a rare case. This pair of rods is held between the thumb and the fingers, in the dominant hand. These sticks are used for picking up the pieces of the food. At first, these were used by only China, but later these sticks spread over to other locations also, such as Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Thailand, Korea, Myanmar, Cambodia and much more.
The Inventor of chopsticks: The inventor of chopsticks is the ancient China. The first dynasty of Ancient china was the Shang dynasty and the last was the Qing dynasty. In the history of world, the longest and lasting empire is also boasted by the Ancient china. Ancient China is also one of the oldest civilizations in history of world.
History of Invention: In ancient China even before the Shang dynasty, around 9000 years ago, these chopsticks were invented. The earlier version of chopsticks was mainly used for cooking and for stirring the fire and also for serving or seizing the food but not as eating utensils. Moreover, those sticks were made up from twigs. Since 1200 B. C., the Chinese have been wielding these sticks.
The first known chopsticks were made up of bronze which was 26 cm long, and the width was around 1.1 cm to 1.3 cm. And as evidence, there were six chopsticks. As for eating utensils, the use of chopsticks began during the Han dynasty. And as we see today, the use of chopsticks for serving and eating both, this started during the Ming Dynasty. After this, they got the name Kuaizi and also got the present shape.
Different cultures approved different styles of chopsticks. Like in Japan, for men these sticks were 8 inches long, were for women these sticks were 7 inches long. Hence, the history of the invention of chopsticks is quite impressive.