Why 1.5 billion people eat with chopsticks | Small Thing Big Idea, a TED series

Transcriber: TED Translators admin

翻译人员: Jiasi Hao 校对人员: Yuyan Zhang

It is such a sort of instrumental part

就餐具而言，

of our cooking vocabulary, in terms of the utensils.

筷子是我们烹饪词汇中 作为烹饪工具和餐具的一种。

And it was like, that's interesting,

这就感觉，很有趣哦，

there are people who live without chopsticks.

世界上还有人不用筷子。

[Small Thing.]

【小东西】

[Big Idea.]

【大想法】

Chopsticks are a pair of two long sticks

筷子就是由两根长棍组成的餐具，

used to eat things with one hand.

可以用一只手拿它们来吃东西。

拿筷子有点像握着一支铅笔，

Holding chopsticks is a little bit like holding a pencil,

except that you have two of them

只不过你手里要握住两根，

and you move them together in a pincer movement.

并且你要像钳子一样同时移动它们。

Most of them are made out of wood. They're also made out of plastic, bamboo,

大部分筷子是木制的。 也有用别的材料制成的：

塑料、竹子、玉、 黄金、银，甚至象牙，

jade, gold, silver and even ivory,

though I think that's not so cool anymore.

虽然我觉得象牙制的筷子不是很酷了。

Chopsticks are really well designed for eating small bits of food.

筷子的设计非常适合 用来夹取较小的食物。

They're good for picking up noodles.

它们适合用来夹起面条。

If you're skilled, you can eat rice,

如果你用熟练了， 你可以用它们来吃米饭，

pick up dumplings, pieces of meat.

夹饺子，夹肉片。

There are some no-nos with chopsticks.

使用筷子也有一些禁忌。

You should not use the chopsticks like drumsticks,

比如，你不可以拿筷子当敲鼓棒，

虽然我知道这挺让人心动。

which I know is tempting.

You don't want to stick chopsticks into a bowl of rice face-up.

此外，你也最好不要将筷子 竖直插入装有米饭的碗中，

And the reason for that is it actually looks like a bowl of incense,

因为这看起来像是上香，

所以它多少暗示着死亡。

so it sort of echoes death.

Chopsticks are used in a huge portion of the world,

世界上有很多地方都在用筷子，

在亚洲，大约有 15 亿人

across much of Asia, about 1.5 billion people

are covered in the chopsticks sphere.

都在使用筷子。

Different cultures have slightly different variations of chopsticks.

筷子的种类也因文化而异。

中国的筷子通常长且圆，

Chinese chopsticks will tend to be long and round,

Korean chopsticks are flatter and often made of metal

韩国的筷子更扁，通常为金属制。

and Japanese chopsticks tend to be round

而日本的筷子比较圆润，

并且非常非常尖。

and very, very pointy.

While chopsticks are actually really commonplace

虽然在当今美国社会中，

in American society today,

筷子也很普遍，

there was definitely a time in the late 1800s

但在 19 世纪后期的一段时间，

where this idea that Asian men,

有过一种观念：

因为亚洲人用筷子吃米饭，

because they ate rice with sticks,

were of a different quality than American men,

所以比起用刀叉吃肉的美国人来说，

who ate proper meat with a knife and fork.

有着不同的品质。

But when China and the United States

但是在 20 世纪 70 年代，

began their diplomatic engagement in the 1970s,

中美开始建立外交合作，

理查德 · 尼克松（Richard Nixon）和 亨利·基辛格（Henry Kissinger）

Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger,

had to practice eating with chopsticks.

不得不练习用筷子吃东西。

What's been really interesting to see

有趣的是，

is that as Asian cuisine has moved from the East into the West,

随着亚洲料理从东方传到了西方，

筷子也因此成了用餐体验的一部分。

chopsticks have become part of the experience.

There's evidence of chopsticks as long ago as the Shang dynasty,

有证据表明，筷子的历史始于商朝，

大约在 3000 年以前，

which is about 3000 years ago,

and they loved tripods during the Shang dynasty.

而且商朝人也喜欢用三足鼎。

So when you cook with these big tripods,

因此当使用大型三足鼎来烹饪时，

chopsticks were actually really useful,

筷子就显得非常有用

because it was a way for you to stir and to reach

因为当水烧开时，

筷子可以帮助你 在不被滚水烫伤的情况下，

without getting burned as the water was boiling

in these really big pots.

去搅拌和夹东西。

Chinese culture has knives and has forks.

中国文化中也有刀和叉，

It uses them in many cases for cooking.

它们通常被使用在烹饪过程中。

But in terms of like what moved into the dining room,

不过只有筷子，

跟随人们来到了餐桌上。

it was the chopsticks.

One of the things about Asian cooking

亚洲烹饪方式的一个特点是，

is that it often comes in very small pieces.

把食物处理得很小块。

And I think part of that has to do with the fact

我认为其中一个原因是，

that it's actually a lot more energy-efficient

小块的食物煮起来更快，

to cook little pieces quickly.

更加省时省力。

而且你不需要在吃饭的时候再去切它们。

But also, then you don't have to cut them.

So you have a circular influence,

所以这就像是一个相互作用——

where the type of food that is cooked allows people to use chopsticks,

食物的种类鼓励人们去使用筷子，

and then the fact that you have chopsticks influences the food that you can cook.

而使用筷子又影响该煮些什么食物。

同时，筷子也反映了 人们一起吃饭的习惯。

But at the same time, chopsticks reflect the communal nature of eating food.

You'll have these dishes that you put in the middle,

通常我们会在中间摆很多菜，

很有家庭的氛围。

it's very family style.

You go in with your chopsticks,

你用筷子夹好菜，

放进你碗里的米饭上， 然后你吃自己碗里的食物。

and you put it on your rice, and then you eat individually.

There's actually a famous sort of legend

其实，有一个很有名的传说，

where everyone has these really, really long chopsticks,

在说，所有人都有 一双很长、很长的筷子，

长到难以将食物送到自己的嘴里。

like way too long for them to feed themselves.

And so in hell, everyone starves,

所以在地狱里，大家都在挨饿，

because they can't pick up food and put it in their mouths.

因为他们无法用这种筷子 夹起食物，放进自己的嘴里。

But in heaven, people take the same chopsticks

在天堂，人们也使用同样的筷子，

and then feed each other.

但是他们会给彼此喂食。