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Chopsticks allow you to prod food, stir it, pick it up, squeeze it and haul it out of the pot with ease. The use of chopsticks is not just a dining skill; it's also a window into Asian culture.

Unlike Japanese chopsticks, Chinese chopsticks are blunt on the eating end and come in a variety of materials. Chinese chopsticks are generally an inch or two longer than Japanese ones. While the Japanese stick to their own portion of food, the Chinese eat around a common table and naturally need longer chopsticks to help themselves or their guests.

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. The Japanese have a theory that training to use chopsticks at infancy encourages cerebral development.

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