Articles 
Chopstick use in Asia.
Throughout the so-called "rice bowl" of Asia in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, food is usually eaten with chopsticks. The Chinese have been using chopsticks for over five thousand years. It is believed that the scholar Confucius who lived from roughly 551 to 479 B.C., influenced the development of chopsticks. As a vegetarian, Confucius thought knives would remind people of slaughterhouses and were too violent for use at the table. Another version of a similar story states that the replacement of knives for chopsticks at the table for eating indicated the increased respect for the scholar over the warrior in Chinese society.
Chopsticks are generally made from two long, thin, usually tapered, pieces of wood. Bamboo is one of the most common materials, but they are also made of plastic, porcelain, animal bone, ivory, metal, coral, agate, and jade.
During the Middle Ages nobility often favored silver chopsticks as it was believed that silver would change colour if it came into contact with poison.
Japanese chopsticks are usually tapered or pointed at the eating end, and Chinese chopsticks tend to be longer with a blunt or square end.
Chopsticks are not used everywhere in Asia. In India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Central Asia most people have traditionally eaten with their hands. Today in Thailand, a spoon and fork is generally used to eat Thai food, and chopsticks are only used to eat dishes influenced by Chinese immigrants, such as noodles. Thailand, however, does make many beautiful wooden chopsticks. Many, like those supplied by Orientations, are beautifully made and packaged in silk boxes or saa paper presentation boxes and come complete with chopstick rests and dipping sauce bowls.