Chopstick (pronounced chop-stik)
(1) A harmonically and melodically simple waltz for piano
played typically with the forefinger of each hand and sometimes having an
accompanying part for a second player. Originally,
it was called The Celebrated Chop Waltz,
written in 1877 by British composer Arthur de Lulli (the pen name of Euphemia
Allen (1861-1949)); it’s used often as a two-finger exercise for those learning
the piano and then name comes from the idea of the two fingers being arrayed in
a chopstickesque way (should be used with an initial capital).
(2) In hand
games, a game in which players hold up a number of fingers on each hand and
try, through certain moves, to eliminate their opponent's hands.
(3) A
pair of thin sticks (of ivory, wood, plastic etc), typically some 10 inches
(230 mm) in length, used as eating utensils by the Chinese, Japanese, and others
in East Asia as well as by those anywhere in the world eating food associated
with these places.
(4) As
an ethnic slur, a person of East Asian appearance.
(5) In
fishing gear, a long straight stick forming part of various fishing tackle
arrangements (obsolete).
(6) In
parts of Australia where individuals are subject to “attack” by “swooping”
magpies, the use of cable ties on bicycle helmets to produce long, thin (ie chopstickish)
protrusions which act as a “bird deterrent”.
(7) In
automotive slang, the “parking guides” (in some places known as “gutter
scrapers”) mounted at a vehicle’s extremities to assist when parking or
navigating tight spaces. They have been
replaced by sensors and cameras but were at the time an impressively effective low-tech
solution.
1590s (contested): The construct was chop + stick. The use to describe the eating utensil was first documented in 1637 and may have been a transfer of the sense from the earlier use to describe fishing tackle (in use since at least 1615) which was based on the physical resemblance (ie long & thin). The “chop” element was long listed by dictionaries as being from the Chinese Pidgin English chop (-chop) (quick), a calque from the Chinese 筷子 (kuàizi) (chopstick”), from 快 (kuài) (quick) but this is now thought improbable because there is no record of Chinese Pidgin English until the eighteenth century. The notion of the link with Chinese Pidgin English appeared first in the 1880s with the rationale: “The Chinese name of the article is ‘kwai-tsz (speedy-ones)” which was a decade later refined with the explanation “Possibly the inventor of the present word, hearing that the Chinese name had this meaning, and accustomed to the phrase chop-chop for ‘speedily,’ used chop as a translation.” This became orthodoxy after being picked-up for inclusion in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary (1893)), a publication so authoritative it spread to most until English language dictionaries from the late 19th century onwards. The chronological impossibility of the Pidgin English theory was first noted by Kingsley Bolton (b 1947) in Chinese English: A Sociolinguistic History (2003). The English form is now thought to come simply from the use of the Chinese, modified over time and oral transmission. The current orthodoxy is the Pidgin English chop (quick; fast) was from the Cantonese word chāu (快) (quick). The construct of the Chinese kuàizi (筷子) was kuài (筷) (quick) + zi (子) (a diminutive suffix). Stick was from the Middle English stikke (stick, rod, twig), from the Old English sticca (twig or slender branch from a tree or shrub (also “rod, peg, spoon”), from the Proto-West Germanic stikkō, from the Proto-Germanic stikkô (pierce, prick), from the primitive Indo-European verb stig, steyg & teyg- (to pierce, prick, be sharp). It was cognate with the Old Norse stik, the Middle Dutch stecke & stec, the Old High German stehho, the German Stecken (stick, staff), the Saterland Frisian Stikke (stick) and the West Flemish stik (stick). The word stick was applied to many long, slender objects closely or vaguely resembling twigs or sticks including by the early eighteenth century candles, dynamite by 1869, cigarettes by 1919 (the slang later extended to “death sticks” & “cancer sticks). Chopstick, chopstickful, chopstickery & chopsticker are nouns, chopsticking & chopsticked are verbs and chopstickish & chopstick-like are adjectives; the noun plural is chopsticks and the word is almost always used in the plural (sometimes as “a pair of chopsticks”). The adjective chopstickesque is non-standard.
Niche market: a pair of chopsticks in 18-carat gold, diamonds, pearls, and ebony by Erotic Jewellery, Gold Coast, Australia. The chopsticks were listed at Aus$139,000 and have the environmental benefit being of endlessly reusable and are also dual-purpose, the pearl mounted at the end of one chopstick detachable and able to be worn as a necklace.
In
English, chopstick has proved productive.
A chopsticker is one who uses chopsticks, chopstickery describes the skill or art of using chopsticks, a chopstickful describes the maximum
quantity of food which can be held in one pair of chopsticks (a la “mouthful”),
chopstick land was a slang term for China
(used sometimes of East Asia generally) but is now listed as a micro-aggression,
chopstick legs (always in the plural)
is a fashion industry term describing long, thin legs (a usually desirable
trait), chopstickology is a humorous
term used by those teaching others the art of using chopsticks (on the model of
“mixology” (the art of making cocktails), “Lohanology” (the study of Lindsay
Lohan and all things Lohanic), “sockology” (the study of socks) etc), a chopstick rest is a small device upon
which one's chopsticks may be placed while not in use (known also as a chopstick stand), chopstickless means lacking or not using, chopsticks, chopsticky is a adjective (the
comparative “more chopsticky”, the superlative “most chopsticky”) meaning (1)
resembling a chopstick (ie “long and thin”) (chopstick-like & chopstickish
the alternative adjectives in this context), (2) suitable for the use of
chopsticks or (3) characterized by the use of chopsticks (the companion noun chopsticky meaning “the state of being
chopstickish”. Chopstickism was once used of things considered Chinese or Asian in
character but is now regarded as a racist slur (the non-standard chopstickistic similarly now
proscribed).
They may be slender and light but because annual use is
measured in the millions, there is a significant environmental impact associated
with chopsticks including deforestation, waste and carbon emissions. Beginning in the early twenty-first century,
a number of countries in East Asia have taken measures designed to reduce the
extent of the problem including regulatory impositions, technological
innovation and public awareness campaigns.
In 2006, the Chinese government levied a 5% consumption tax on
disposable wooden chopsticks and later began a “Clean Your Plate” publicity
campaign to encourage sustainable dining practices. In Japan, although disposable chopsticks (waribashi) remain common, some local
governments (responsible for waste management) promote reusable options and businesses
have been encouraged to offer reusable or bamboo-based alternatives although
the RoK (Republic of Korea (South Korea)) went further and promoted reusable
metal chopsticks, devices which could last a lifetime.
The Chork
Although the materials used in construction and the
possibilities of recycling have attracted some interest, there has in hundreds
of years been no fundamental change in the chopstick’s design, simply because
it long ago was (in its core function) perfected and can’t be improved
upon. However, in 2016, the US fast food
chain Panda Express (which specializes what it describes as “American Chinese
cuisine”) displayed the chork (the construct being ch(opstick) + (f)ork). Designed presumably for the benefit of
barbaric Westerners unable to master a pair of chopsticks (one of the planet’s
most simple machines) the chork had been developed by Brown Innovation Group (BIG)
which first revealed its existence in 2010.
BIG has created a website for the chork which explains the three correct
ways to use the utensil: (1) Employ the fork end as one might a conventional
fork, (2) break the chork in two and use like traditional chopsticks or (3) use
what BIG call cheater/training mode in which the chopstick component is used
with the fork part still attached. Unfortunately
for potential chorkers, Panda Express used the chork only as a promotional tool
for Panda Express' General Tso's chicken launch but they remain available from BIG
in packs of 12 & 24, both manufactured in the PRC.
Richard Nixon, chopsticks and détente
Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974, centre) became famous for some things and infamous for others but one footnote in the history of his administration was that he banned soup. In 1969, Nixon hosted a state dinner for Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000; prime minister of Canada 1968-1979 & 1980-1984) and the next day complained to HR Haldeman (1926–1993; White House chief of staff 1969-1973) that the formal dinners “take forever”, suggesting “Why don’t we just leave out the soup course?”, adding “Men don’t really like soup.” (other than the waitresses, state dinners were then substantially a male preserve). Haldeman knew his socially awkward boss well and had his suspicions so he called the president's valet and asked, “Was there anything wrong with the president’s suit after that dinner last night?” “Why yes…”, the valet responded, “…he spilled soup down the vest.” Not until Gerald Ford (1913–2006; US president 1974-1977) assumed the presidency was soup restored to the White House menus to the relief of the chefs who couldn’t believe a dinner was really a dinner without a soup course.
A chopstick neophyte in Beijing: Zhou Enlai (1898–1976; premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) 1949-1976, left), Richard Nixon (centre) and Zhang Chunqiao (1917–2005, right) at the welcome banquet for President Nixon's visit to the PRC, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 26 February 1972. After the death of comrade Chairman Mao (Mao Zedong 1893–1976; chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1949-1976), in a CCP power struggle, Zhang (a prominent figure in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)) was arrested, becoming one of the “Gang of Four” (which included the late chairman’s last wife). After a typically efficient Chinese trial, he was sentenced to death but was granted a two-year reprieve and his sentence was later commuted to life in prison before being reduced to 18 years. Released on humanitarian ground in 1998 to enable him to receive treatment for cancer, he died in 2005.
The event was not a “state visit” because at the time no formal diplomatic relations existed between the two nations (the US still recognized the Taiwan-based RoC (Republic of China (which Beijing regards still as a “renegade province”)) as the legitimate government of China). For that reason, the trip was described as an “official visit”, a term not part of diplomatic protocol. There are in history a few of these fine distinctions: technically, diplomatic relations were never re-established between Berlin and Paris after the fall of the Third Republic in 1940 so ambassadors were never accredited which means Otto Abetz (1903-1958), who fulfilled the role between 1940-1944, should be referred to as “de facto” German ambassador (as the letters patent made clear, he acted with full ambassadorial authority). In July 1949, a French court handed Abetz a twenty-year sentence for crimes against humanity; released in 1954, he died in 1958 in a traffic accident on the Cologne-Ruhr autobahn and there are conspiracy theorists who suspect the death was “an assassination”. The de facto ambassador was the great uncle of Eric Abetz (b 1958; Liberal Party senator for Tasmania, Australia 1994-2022, member of the Tasmanian House of assembly since 2024), noted in Australian legal history for being the first solicitor in the city of Hobart to include color on his firm's letterhead.
Longing for a chork.
Both the US and the PRC had their own reasons for wishing to emerge from the “diplomatic deep-freeze” (Moscow something of a pivot) and it was this event which was instrumental in beginning the process of integrating the PRC into the international system. The “official visit” also introduced into English the idiomatic phrase “Nixon in China” (there are variations) which describes the ability of a politician with an impeccable reputation of upholding particular political values to perform an action in seeming defiance of them without jeopardizing his support or credibility. For his whole political career Nixon had been a virulent anti-communist and was thus able to make the tentative approach to the PRC (and later détente with the Soviet Union) in a way which would not have been possible for someone without the same history. In the same way the Democratic Party’s Bill Clinton (b 1946; US president 1993-2001) was able during the 1990s to embark on social welfare “reform” in a way no Republican administration could have achieved.
The chopstick as a hair accessory: Lindsay Lohan (b 1986, left) in The Parent Trap (1998) and Hilary Duff (b 1987, right) at Nickelodeon's 15th Annual Kids Choice Awards, Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, California, April, 2002. These outfits might now be described as "cultural appropriation".
Following the visit, there was also a culinary ripple in the US. Since the nineteenth century, Chinese restaurants had been a fixture in many US cities but the dishes they served were often very different from those familiar in China and some genuinely were local creations; fortune cookies began in San Francisco courtesy of a paperback edition of “Chinese Proverbs” and all the evidence suggests egg rolls were invented in New York. The news media’s coverage of the visit attracted great interest and stimulated interest in “authentic” Chinese food after some of the menus were published. Noting the banquet on the first night featured shark’s fin soup, steamed chicken with coconut and almond junket (a type of pudding), one enterprising chap was within 24 hours offering in his Manhattan Chinese restaurant recreation of each dish, a menu which remained popular for some months after the president’s return. Mr Nixon’s favorite meal during the visit was later revealed to be Peking duck and around the US, there was a spike in demand for duck.
The graphic is the National Emblem of the People's Republic of China and in a red circle depicts a representation of Tiananmen Gate, the entrance gate to the Forbidden City imperial palace complex, where in 1949 comrade Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–1976; chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1949-1976) declared the foundation of the PRC (People's Republic of China) in 1949. The five stars are those from the national flag, the largest representing the CCP, the others the four revolutionary social classes defined in Maoism (the peasantry, proletariat, petty bourgeoisie & national bourgeoisie). Although Maoism was criticized by comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) and others for being “ideologically primitive”, it has over the decades proved a practical and enduring textbook for insurgencies and revolutionary movements, especially where those involved substantially are rural-dwellers.