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12.1.10
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The art of chopsticks manipulation
I was at Chinatown after class today for lunch and to pick up some groceries. Looking around the restaurant, I could not help but observe everyone's grip on their chopsticks with varying methods and skills.
 When I was much younger, my handling of these sticks, as with a pen or a pencil, were clumsy and not aesthetically pleasing. My family would say, "As Chinese descendants, it is an embarrassment not knowing how to use a pair of chopsticks correctly." And so, my aunts would put me through much torture to hold it properly - not low nor too high up, the lower chopstick resting on the ring finger and the crook between the thumb and index finger, while controlling the movement of the complementing chopstick with the thumb, index and the middle finger. It took much practice, but boy am I glad I was put through that. Chopstick-handling requires quite the concentration and muscle flexibility, unlike the fork with does half the work for us.
Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, demonstrates how to use chopsticks the East Asian way. Although in my opinion, using the pinky and the ring finger to hold on to the lower chopstick adds more work to the finger-cramping process. Or take advice from this instead, whose accent is definitely of a Singaporean or Malaysian. Check out Ferriss' other blog entries too, there are some cool stuff on it.
Back in the restaurant seeing patrons fiddle with their chopsticks in ways that my family members would shake their heads to (crossing chopsticks, holding it too low, hands in a fist rather than streamlined, pointy-looking), my only lament is how this art form appears to be fading. Not the utility itself, the use of chopsticks will always be around, but the artistry in holding a pair no longer seems to be of concern to many. Keep practicing, till the day marbles can be picked with a pair of chopsticks without the awkwardness.
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Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
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