As Covid-19 changes chopstick habits, China’s diners ponder how to keep family love and intimacy alive
- Adding chopsticks to the table for the sole purpose of serving is seen by many as interrupting Chinese family values
- Fear of disease, the need to reassure customers and new local laws mean restaurants may be forced to change how they set the table
For 40 years, Linda He and her family had served themselves from a single communal dish, picking up food with the same chopsticks they used to eat their meal as part of a long dining tradition in Chinese communities.
But that changed last month when she started something of a dining table revolution: she added a second pair of chopsticks – just for serving.
“Sharing food has been a tradition, but I have always thought we should abandon it because it helps spread diseases,” said He, who lives with her parents and child in Shanghai.
Sharing food with chopsticks is often regarded as a way to convey affection. But the spread of Covid-19, which has infected more than 83,000 people and killed over 4,600 in China, has convinced families like He’s to take precautions.
“Several friends of mine said they started using serving chopsticks at home after I did,” she said.
In a poll of about 30,000 citizens in the southeastern city of Xiamen in March, over two months after the new coronavirus was first reported in central China, nearly 85 per cent of respondents said it was necessary for families to use serving spoons or chopsticks to prevent the spread of infectious disease, Xiamen Daily reported.
The fear of contagion could change not just how people eat but also how millions of restaurants do business.
Deng Yanping, a restaurant owner in the city of Jiaxing, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, said she had started providing serving utensils, as well as spacing tables farther apart, to lure wary customers back.
“In the past, only some high-end restaurants would do that,” she said. “Small restaurants like mine need to keep the cost as low as possible – more utensils means more hands are needed to wash them.”
The campaign had mixed results. While the practice stuck in some places, such as Hong Kong, in others the extra pair of chopsticks faded from the public view along with the disease.
But this time could be different. Some local authorities are taking no chances, requiring restaurants to provide serving utensils.
In Jiangshan in Zhejiang, a restaurant was fined 50 yuan (US$7) for failing to do so in May, the first penalty of its kind in the country (if not the world), Guangming Daily reported.
The northwestern province of Shaanxi has launched a campaign to ensure all diners use serving chopsticks by the end of October.
But Deng said only a small number of her customers had embraced the new way of eating.
“Changing people’s habits can take a very long time,” she said.
“But what we’re doing is at least a good start.”
Li Liang, a 34-year-old Beijing resident, said his father rebuffed him when he suggested dividing food into individual servings to reduce the risk of cross-infections.
“My father said, ‘No. Do you see me as an outsider?’” he said.
It is customary for parents and grandparents to express their love by picking up food from a shared dish and putting it in their children’s bowls. Children do the same to their parents to show respect.
Authorities pushing for a change in how to share a meal have acknowledged the cultural significance of communal dining in the country.
“Use serving chopsticks and spoons,” said an advertisement posted by the Shanghai government. “It’s all about love, not estrangement.”
“Divide meals, not love,” another government advertisement said.
