除了文化因素，中国人为什么用筷子而不是刀叉（二）？多图预警！！ [美国媒体]

What’s the point to eating food with chopsticks instead of knives and forks, apart from the cultural aspect?

除了文化因素，中国人为什么用筷子而不是刀叉（二）？

Abhishek Dhar, studied at National Institute of Technology, CalicutUpdatedJul 17, 2013



If you notice carefully, you would see thetwo sticks are used in a different manner. The lower one, is the support. Itdoesnt move and only serves to provide a mean to catch hold of the item.龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.com
The upper (main) stick here is used as alever of third class. Lets see what wiki has to say about class 3 lever.

如果你真的留心过的话，你会发现这两根棍子拿起来的方式是不一样的。下面那个是支撑，不会随着手一起动，而是用来帮助夹稳东西的。上面那个（主要的）筷子，用起来的时候分为三段。让我们看看维基百科是怎么描述这三段的。

 

（译者注：从左到右依次是，支点，作用力，载荷端）
From wiki-

来自维基

Class 3: Effort in the middle: the resistance is on one side of the effort and the fulcrum is located on the otherside. Mechanical advantage is less than 1.

三段：转向力在中间：阻力和转向力在筷子同侧，支点在另一侧，机械增益小于1。（译注：文科生一脸懵懂，涉及物理学专用名词，翻译如有不当，有劳大神指正。）

When mechanical advantage is less than one,it means the force that is getting applied on the food is less than the force you are applying on the stick.

当机械增益小于1时，这就意味着被施加在食物上的力比你的用在筷子上的要小。

What does that mean?
It means you can handle a variety ofdelicate food items, which otherwise would have been broken apart.

这意味着什么呢？
这表明你可以得心应手的夹起一个非常小巧玲珑的点心而不弄碎它。

These are some important points I found onanother answer. Christine Ng's answer to What are the pros and cons of eating with chopsticks?

我从其他人的答案那得到了一些很重要的观点。参考Christine Ng对于用筷子吃东西的优缺点的作答。

1) Precision eating
If you notice, most east Asian cuisines cook/cut their meats and vegetables in bite size proportions, so chopsticks are well made for these forms. If you alsonotice, Japanese chopsticks come with a point at the end, versus Chinese chopsticks.These help for even more precision eating.

吃得更精细
你要是留心就会发现大多数东亚的烹饪都会把食材切成刚好可以入口的大小，因此筷子就相伴而生了。你还会发现，与中国筷子相比，日本筷子的末梢是尖的，这可以让人吃得更精细。

2) Separating meat from bones
Chopsticks seem much more successful at doing this. A lot of asian meats, especially fish, are cooked bones and all,and chopsticks do a better job at this.

用筷子把骨头从肉里面剔出来更方便。很多亚洲的肉食，尤其是鱼类，是和骨头一起烹饪的，筷子挑骨头很好用。

Peppe Dragoni, President (1989-present)
Answered Dec 1
The most important thing is it, it enables you to eat slower. Instead of us Americans, shoveling food it at an alarming rate. It take approximately 20–30 minutes for food to get to your stomach. That is when you will feel full. SO it makes sense the slower you eat the better it is for you

最重要的一点是，确保你能够吃得更慢。我们美国人咀嚼食物的速度是很惊人的。食物需要花上二三十分钟来到达你的胃中使你产生饱腹感。所以你吃的越慢就摄取的越少。

Bruno Gilissen, Airline pilot.
Answered May 27
Years ago, I did a jungle survival trek inMalaysia. We went into the jungle for a few days with 4 matches, a piece of candle, a machete, and a bit of rice.

很多年前，我体验了一次在马来西亚丛林的野外生存。我们带着四盒火柴，一点蜡烛，一把弯刀和一些米进入了丛林。

On the first night, we made a fire and cooked a bit of the rice, together with some plants, roots and leaves that welearned were edible. Great. We cooked it inside a piece of bamboo, which wasthen put over the fire, in effect steaming the contents.

第一天晚上，我们生起篝火来做饭，还加了些我们所了解的可食性植物的树根和叶子太棒了，我们把这些食材放到了竹子里，随后把烤干的竹子扔进火里作薪柴。

When the food was ready, we white Westeners all looked at each other in doubt. Are we going to eat this now with ourblack-red dirty hands?

当食物准备好的时候，我们这些西方的白人面面相觑。我们该怎么用我们又黑又红的手来吃东西呢？

A guy from Singapore took his machete, tooka branch and cut himself a set of chopsticks. Clever man.

一个来自新加坡的小伙子拿起了弯刀，砍下了一些树枝为自己做了双筷子。聪明的家伙。

Ever since then, when brainstorming aboutany problem, I try to include a little though process that in coding would be a loop named “what_would_they_do_in_another_culture”.

从那以后，每当我绞尽脑汁地思考一个难题，我都会给我思考的程序加上这样一串代码“如果是来自另一种文化背景下的人会怎么做”

That, to me, seems point enough to eat with chopsticks.

对于我而言，用筷子的吃饭的原因不一而足。

Pak L. Huide, studied at China
Updated Nov 8 · Upvoted by Xinchun Li,lives in China and Amy Kaye, degree in food and nutrition. Life time foodie and gourmet.
No point to chopsticks? Do you grasp what chopsticks can do?

筷子没用？你真的明白筷子的用途吗？

It can pick up food. No-brainer here.

可以夹食物。不用脑子也能想出来。

It can beat eggs and mix batter.

打碎鸡蛋并且充分搅拌

It can make scrambled eggs.

可以用来摊鸡蛋

 
 

It can be used to roughly toss a salad.

可以用来拌沙拉
 
 

It can be used to eat noodles.

可以用来吃面条

It can be used to test the doneness offood.

可以用来检测食物有多熟

It’s a make shift skewer

可以用来做串子

 

Testing the oil temperature

测油温
 
 

Deep frying and shallow frying

用来帮助油炸食物

 

Eating Cheetos and chips

吃薯片这样的膨化食品（译注：不弄脏手）

 

Making a steamer

做一个蒸锅

 

Pitting cherries

去樱桃核

 

Gutting fish

除鱼杂

Sharing and serving food (The blackchopstick is the serving chopstick公筷)

分享食物（黑色那双是公用筷子）

 

Making garnish

制作饰菜

 

Getting precisewater pour

倒水倒得滴水不漏

 

Makingdumplings

做饺子

 

It’smore “civilized” (For East Asians, a knife on the table is just aggressive andunseemly)

更“文明”（对于东亚人而言，餐桌上的刀是冒犯的，不得体的）

Lockingin hair

固定发型

 

As weapons

充当武器

 

You can also use a chopstick to smoke a cigarette if your hands are wet

你的手要是很湿的话，你当然可以用它们来抽香烟。 

So thereal question becomes. Is there a point to having forks and knives when youhave chopsticks??

所以，真正的问题应该是：当你有了一双筷子，还有刀叉能派上用场的地方吗？

RebeccaMay, Expat, living in ChinaAnsweredMay 29 As aforeigner who grew up eating with forks and knives I think I can share a uniqueperspective on this.

作为一个生来只用刀叉的外国人，我觉得关于这个问题我可以分享一下我的独到见解。

When Ifirst came to China I thought chopsticks were a silly thing to use when therest of the world has embraced ‘proper’ cutlery

当我第一次来到中国时，我认为当世界的其他地方都投入了刀叉的怀抱时，还在用筷子显得很傻气。 

After Ilearned to use them, my whole view changed, though.

然而当我真正学会用筷子后，我的观点被颠覆了。 

I loveto cook, and have since found that not only are chopsticks superior to forksand knives for eating, but for all sorts of culinary uses. I won’t go intodetail, as many other people have detailed this

我喜欢做菜，那是我有生以来第一次发现筷子不仅吃起来比刀叉方便，而且还是无所不能的厨房用具。我就不一一赘述了，有很多人说的已经很详细了。

Afteryou get the hang of it, chopsticks are much more graceful than forks or knives.I can never seem to pick up all the food I want with a fork and knife. Withchopsticks there is no clumsy scraping, heaping or spooning. They are preciseand accurate.

在我熟悉了筷子之后，我发觉筷子远比刀叉要优雅。刀叉并非所有食物都能取。有了勺子你就再也不必笨拙地把食物弄碎，堆砌，再舀起来了。筷子可以精准地百发百中。

I don’t need 20 different kitchen tools anymore. Shallow frying and need to flip? Noneed for a large clumsy spatula that will splash the oil. Chopsticks. Battering something to prepare for frying? God help me if I use tongs or my fingers, itwill get everywhere. Chopsticks are so much smaller and easier to clean. Need tostir something? Well, I could dirty up that spoon.. Or. Chopsticks.

我再也用不到二十多种厨具了，浅煎还有翻炒？再也不需要用到大而笨拙的铲子了，省得把油溅得到处都是。把什么东西捣碎来煎？用夹子或者手指吗？那样也许老天也帮不到我，我会把碎末弄得到处都是的。筷子相比之下清理碎末要容易得多。需要搅拌东西？好吧，我会脏了我的勺子，毕竟还有筷子呢。

Now I prefer using chopsticks for everything, and am ever so slightly dismayed when Iam forced to use a fork.

现在我什么都喜欢用筷子来做，以至于每次用刀的时候我都会感到不适应。

So is there a point to using chopsticks?

所以呢，你觉得有什么理由用筷子呢？

There’s always a point to using a neater more accurate method if you can find it.

总有你可以用筷子做的更干净利落的事情。