"When you're eating, you're as great as an emperor" is a Taiwan folk adage which means that each meal is so intrinsically important, everything must wait until you've finished. No doubt other people feel much the same way too. But every nation has its own preferred manner of eating.

Indians and others love to eat meals with their fingers, claiming that direct contact with the warmth and texture of the food lets you more truly experience the pleasure of eating. Europeans also used to eat with their fingers until forks were invented in the sixteenth century, and it was only in the seventeenth century that the upper classes began to dine with knife, fork and spoon.

The date at which chopstick, the favorite eating implements of the Chinese, first appeared is a mystery, but the custom of eating with chopsticks certainly existed by the Shang period.

A single pair of chopsticks allows you to handle all kinds of food with consummate ease, whether stir-fried, boiled, roasted, deep-fried, in slivers, diced or cut into pieces of any size, even whole fish, chicken or duck... with chopsticks you can tear these limb from limb and smoothly convey the food to your mouth; to operate them you simply flex your fingers to open and close them and the food is caught in their grip, it's an easy way to eat which also lets the diner maintain a dignified posture. So Chinese culinary culture is not just a matter of cooking techniques and fine food flavors, it also involves a specific type of tableware.

Having been an inseparable part of the daily scene for thousands of years, Chinese history abounds with stories and anecdotes about chopsticks.

The Shih-chi records that King Chou of the Shang dynasty lived high on the hog and used ivory chopsticks, at which his uncle Chi-tzu shook his head and complained: "Now you're using ivory chopsticks, next you'll want to drink from jade goblets, then you'll want to own rare animals and exotica from distant parts; it's the slippery slope towards luxury and extravagance...."

Recent finds of Shang and Chou bronzes on the mainland have included discoveries of chopsticks and spoons, evidence of the development of sophisticated dining in the Chinese civilization of 3,000 years ago.

But that's not to say that chopsticks ruled supreme from the start. In early times chopsticks had yet to show their full versatility, and the ancient Chinese still ate with spoons for the most part. In the Chou period, according to the Li-chi, chopsticks were only used for lifting solid food out of soup. It was only in Ming and Ch'ing times, from the fourteenth century onwards, that chopsticks truly came into universal use.

Predicting the future is a favorite occult art of the Chinese, and even chopsticks were used for divination in antiquity. In the Three Kingdoms period a certain Chao Ta once visited a friend who had no wish to entertain him, so he said: "How inconvenient, I've no wine or meat here at home so I cannot receive guests." Whereupon Chao Ta took up a chopstick, and after turning it this way and that, declared: "There's wine and meat at the east end of your house, why say there is none?" Startled, the unwilling host laughed it off by saying: "Your divination is perfectly correct, I'd heard you were a skilled diviner and just wanted to test you...."

Ancient fortune-telling texts say that people who handle chopsticks using three fingers are easy-going by nature, those who use four are well-omened, and those who use all five fingers are destined for greatness.

In Taiwan it is popularly believed that the higher up a woman holds her chopsticks, the farther away she'll settle when she marries. This has no scientific basis, but it's been argued accurately enough that holding chopsticks lower down is easier, so this sort of person is more conservative and doesn't like to expend energy; holding them higher up is harder, but allows you to help yourself to dishes further away, so this type of person must like trying all the food on the table, not just the dish immediately before them, so they have a more active nature and are prepared to take risks.

But the way you use chopsticks really can show the sort of person you are.

It is said that when the Ch'ien-lung Emperor dined, two sets of spoons and chopsticks had to be provided, one for serving the food, the other for his own use. Since there was always too much food at palace meals, once the emperor withdrew the remainder was shared among the concubines and eunuchs. The Ch'ien-lung Emperor's custom of using a special set of spoons and chopsticks to keep the food clean for them was the forerunner of the concept of separate serving spoons and chopsticks.

In the novel The Scholars, Fan Chin is invited to dinner by the county magistrate after passing the provincial examination, but refuses to take a seat. The magistrate immediately ordered the chopsticks with silver inlay to be changed for ivory chopsticks, but he still wouldn't sit at the table. Only when plain bamboo chopsticks were brought did Fan Chin happily tuck into the banquet. Only chopsticks of plain bamboo seemed sufficiently "incorrupt," ivory ones too wasteful by half!

Chopsticks have played many an important role on the stage of history too.

Liu Pang, Emperor Kao-tsu of the Han dynasty, was discussing affairs of state with his chief minister Li Shih-ch'i over dinner one day when they were joined by Chang Liang, to whom he put Li's ideas. Chang had misgivings and so borrowed Liu Pang's chopsticks and laid them out as counters on the table to explain what was likely to happen. Once put in the picture, the emperor hastily spat out his mouthful of food and reprimanded Li Shih-ch'i: "This useless bookworm came within an ace of wrecking my empire." This is also the origin of the phrase "borrowing chopsticks for counters," which today means standing in for someone else.

Things turned out much worse for another Han minister called Chou Ya-fu, who had won high office through his valor in quelling seven rebellious states but who disagreed with Emperor Ching-ti's political views. Having submitted his resignation on the pretext of ill health, Ching-ti invited him to dine at the palace. At dinner Chou Ya-fu saw nothing before him but a large piece of meat, with no eating utensils. As he turned angrily round to demand that chopsticks be brought, Ching-ti scoffed: "Still not satisfied?" Realizing that the emperor merely intended to insult him Chou Ya-fu tore off his mandarin's hat and left. This act of l?se-majest? provided the emperor with an excuse to put him to death.

But chopsticks could also be a symbol of honor. Sung Ching, chief minister to Hsuantsung of the T'ang dynasty, was universally respected for his wise perspicacity. Hsuantsung invited all his ministers to a spring wine feast at which he presented Sung Ching with a pair of golden chopsticks, which, however, not being certain what they signified, he hesitated to accept. Once Hsuan-tsung had explained he was giving them in recognition that Sung Ching was as straight and upright as the chopsticks themselves, he gladly ac cepted them with a bow.

Chopsticks have also been involved in some farcical moments of history, such as when a corrupt emperor of the Five Dynasties period thought of a new use for them--uncertain whom to choose as his chief minister, he wrote some ministers' names on pieces of paper, put them in a vase, and whichever he picked out with a pair of chopsticks was to be his chief minister.

Besides being part of the Chinese scene, chopsticks have also spread to Korea and Japan.

Golden chopsticks have been recovered from a Korean site of Han date in the area of modern Pyongyang. Today Koreans use chopsticks of stainless steel, apparently preferring metal because it helps to warm your hands as you eat a meal in that chilly climate.

The Japanese first used chopsticks in the Kofun (Tumulus) period (third to seventh century A.D.), although early Japanese nobles continued the Chinese custom of eating with spoons, and chopsticks only became popular with the collapse of the feudal aristocracy.

Famous for their lavish gift-giving on ritual occasions, the Japanese not only have superior gift chopsticks but even hold a thanksgiving ritual for them--the chopstick kuyo (memorial service). According to returned Japanese student Chang Ts'ang-sung, the chopstick thanksgiving ritual, which after a break only came back into popularity about five years ago, mainly consists of thanking chopsticks for their help in eating, and performing a ritual in memory of the bamboos and trees cut down to make them.

A Japanese Education Ministry survey of schoolchildren found that only 48.4 percent of them used chopsticks correctly. Chang Ts'ang-sung, whose work involves frequent trips between Taiwan and Japan, says that the Welfare Ministry has now instructed nurseries to teach two- and three-year-old infants to use chopsticks, and the subject is now part of the elementary school curriculum.

The Japanese have even researched into the length of chopsticks. The ideal chopstick length for any individual is 1.2 times the distance from the tip of their middle finger to the base of their palm. And the tops of the chopsticks should be held just one centimeter apart during use.

Japanese chopsticks are generally an inch or two shorter than Chinese ones, but this has nothing to do with differences in physical stature. According to folk researcher Chuang Po-ho, while the Japanese stick to their own portion of food, the Chinese eat round a common table and naturally need longer chopsticks to help themselves or their guests. The longest chopsticks of all are found in the province of Hunan, which may well reflect the Gast-freundlichkeit of the Hunanese!

As well as bamboo, Japanese chopsticks are also made of fir, juniper, red sandalwood and aluminum, while those made of mulberry wood are said to ensure long life. In the Shang period and earlier Chinese chopsticks were usually made of bamboo and wood, but later ivory and jade ones appeared; by the Spring & Autumn and Warring States periods there were bronze and iron ones, and in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties periods there were chopsticks of lacquer, gold and silver....

Different materials behave in different ways. Jade chopsticks are cool and heat-resistant, but overly fragile. Ivory chopsticks are also cool to the touch and are said to help cool food down as you take it.

Ivory chopsticks are most popular with the Cantonese. "Lots of Cantonese trade with Southeast Asia, where ivory comes from." Lin Yueh-ling, a sexagenarian Cantonese, says that ivory is a dense material, impervious to mould and heat and not easily broken, so that one pair will last you a lifetime. According to Lin, well-heeled people used to have their names carved into their ivory chopsticks and take them with them as a wedding dowry. They were also presented as gifts. Mr. Lin himself has a set of "unbreakable tableware" from Canton.

Silver chopsticks are best known as protection against poison, since they are said to turn black if there's poison in the food. Emperors and high officials down the centuries have long preferred silver chopsticks. When the late Ch'ing imperial household switched to ivory chopsticks, silver markers were stuck in the food for reassurance.

Chopsticks have also been made of rhino horn, said to have been a favorite with the court beauties Chao Fei-yen and Yang Kuei-fei on account of their rarity and the belief that they offered protection against poison.

Modern chopsticks are made of bamboo, wood, glass and plastic, and different parts of mainland China are celebrated for their chopsticks, such as lacquer chopsticks from Fukien, Hangchow T'ien-chu chopsticks, and ivory chopsticks from Peking.

Meanwhile disposable chopsticks are all the rage in Taiwan!

Most of Taiwan's bamboo chopsticks come from Chushan, where chopstick factories sprang up all over the place in the early '80s with the government drive for restaurants to use disposable chopsticks as a preventive measure against hepatitis-B. "There were about 100 manufacturers then," says Lai Hung-tse, proprietor of the Ming Hung chopstick factory. Many have relocated to Southeast Asia and mainland China in recent years due to fierce competition and rising wages, "and there's barely 20 left now." So the majority of disposable chopsticks used in Taiwan today are actually imported from Southeast Asia.

The Ming poet Ch'eng Liang-kuei apostro-phized the chopstick in these lines: "Busy, busy bamboo chopsticks/First to taste sweet or bitter/It is others who savor the food/And you who wing back and forth in vain." The poet seems to sympathize with the chopsticks' lonely existence, caught in a limbo between mouth and bowl. But recently Taitung artist Ao Cheng-ch'i has been collecting disposable chopsticks, trimming, gluing and coloring them to make "chopstick paintings" which he has exhibited in Taipei and on the mainland, ushering the chopstick into a totally new realm, as art. If only they knew, how all those chopsticks of the past would glow with a sense of achievement!

[Picture Caption]

When chopsticks go on the offensive, food doesn't stand chance!

Chopsticks use the principle of leverage and, long or short, are handy for everything from lifting food to plunging fried bread- sticks into the fat.

The Japanese have a theory that training to use chopsticks in infancy encourages cerebral development!

As Chinese food has become more widely popular, chopsticks have become a familiar sight to people the world over.

Different people prefer chopsticks of various materials.

Taiwan's bamboo chopsticks are mostly exported to Japan; while our disposable chopsticks are mainly imported from Southeast Asia.

According to ancient divination texts, people who hold their chopsticks using three fingers are easy-going, those who use four are well-omened, and those who use all five are destined for greatness. Which type are you?

This chopstick dance comes from Mongolia.

Chopsticks use the principle of leverage and, long or short, are handy for everything from lifting food to plunging fried bread- sticks into the fat.

The Japanese have a theory that training to use chopsticks in infancy encourages cerebral development!

As Chinese food has become more widely popular, chopsticks have become a familiar sight to people the world over.

Different people prefer chopsticks of various materials.

Taiwan's bamboo chopsticks are mostly exported to Japan; while our disposable chopsticks are mainly imported from Southeast Asia.

According to ancient divination texts, people who hold their chopsticks using three fingers are easy-going, those who use four are well-omened, and those who use all five are destined for greatness. Which type are you?

This chopstick dance comes from Mongolia.