When you’re traveling through China, diving into delicious street food (Samantha Brown’s favorite street food spot is Xi’an) and busy night markets is half the fun. But there are a handful of things tourists should never do when visiting China, and several have to do with handling chopsticks. First, never stick your chopsticks upright into a bowl of rice. It might seem practical (after all, they’re less likely to roll off the table from this position), but in Chinese culture, it has a pretty grim symbolism and is seen as bad luck.
A longstanding tradition dating back to ancient times is to stick chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice when offering it to the dead. It’s believed that passed-on spirits can’t eat the rice unless the chopsticks are sticking up. Sticking them upright into food also makes them look like incense sticks used at funerals. For more context, one Reddit user says “it’s akin to drinking out of an urn.” So just because you can do it (an urn is sort of cup-like, after all), doesn’t mean you should.
Bringing death and funerals to mind during dinner is a surefire way to kill the buzz. It can be embarrassing, too, as other people might call you out on it, from strangers to restaurant owners.
Mastering chopstick etiquette in China
