So many chopsticks, so much history and culture
Print Edition
During the 鈥渃ultural revolution鈥 (1966-76), a then 30-year-old Lan Xiang witnessed some people burning old chopsticks and antique items. 鈥淚 told them the chopsticks were innocent: 鈥榃hy are you burning what we use to eat with鈥?鈥 he recalls. 鈥淭hey yelled at me, so I ran away.鈥
However, he never ran away from a certain passion about chopsticks. Lan, now 88, operates a private museum on Duolun Road in Hongkou District, where he displays more than 2,000 chopsticks he has amassed over half a century.
The chopsticks 鈥 bamboo, wood, ivory, silver and crystal鈥攃ome from all over China and Southeast Asia, spanning ancient to modern times.
The 10-square-meter, dimly lit showroom, which he opened 20 years ago, is a bit higgledy-piggledy inside. Chopsticks are exhibited with no particular order.
What makes this museum worth a visit is its intimate bond with the soul of Chinese civilization.
鈥淐hinese use chopsticks to eat,鈥 Lan says. 鈥淭o some extent, without chopsticks, there would be no grace or culture.鈥
The earliest chopsticks are believed to have appeared about 4,000 years ago, when Chinese ancestors used two small tree branches to pluck food from a boiling pot. Gradually, the branches were shaped, polished, painted or glazed. New materials were used, including bamboo, jam stone, metal, ivory, animal bones and porcelain.
鈥淭oday, chopsticks with modern designs are becoming popular,鈥 Lan says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 hard to find much written about chopsticks down through history.鈥
Nothing nettles Lan more than that oversight. He notes that the Japanese celebrate the Chopsticks Festival on August 4, and in South Korean primary schools, children are taught to use the chopsticks in a correct, refined manner.
Lan wants China to equally revere such a fine and old tradition. Over the past two decades, he has published 25 books on chopsticks, their history, their etiquette and their development.
鈥淓ach pair of chopsticks has its own story,鈥 Lan explains.
The first pair of chopsticks he collected was from a rural village in northern Shanghai鈥檚 Baoshan District. Lan was on a day trip there and came across an old woman eating lunch with two long, thick chopsticks, which looked more like paintbrushes.
When he inquired about them, she told him they came from the Lingyin (Soul鈥檚 Retreat) Temple in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province. Because kuaizi, the Chinese word for chopsticks, is pronounced the same as the phrase 鈥渋n a hurry to have babies,鈥 the old woman said the chopsticks were presented to her as a wedding gift 60 years earlier.
Lan rushed out to buy 10 pairs of nice, new chopsticks and bartered them for the old pair.
Another set of chopsticks in his collection is made of yak bone, with a bronze cap on each. They were bought from a Tibetan in the Panjiayuan antique market in Beijing in 2000. The vendor at first refused to sell the set. Lan spent three days trying to change his mind.
The yak was revered a sacred animal in Tibet. Before killing one, a person needed to chant a prayer 300 times.
鈥淪o I befriended the Tibetan,鈥 Lan recalls. 鈥淚 took him on a tour around the capital and invited him to a Peking duck restaurant. I bought him cigarettes and good wines.鈥
Finally, the Tibetan relented, and Lan obtained the yak chopsticks.
In the late 1990s, Duolun Road was renovated and designated as a 鈥渃ulture street.鈥 Lan opened the chopsticks museum, displaying his rich collection free of charge. He and his family lived on the second floor.
The museum attracted a steady flow of visitors, and Lan would always come downstairs to greet visitors and share his stories with them.
Rising rents now threaten the museum. Some of other private specialty museums in the city 鈥 dedicated to old coins, antique clocks, grotesque rockery 鈥 have had to close because of increasing costs.
Lan still struggles on. He is hard of hearing and has to sit in a chair most of the time. He sells small souvenirs to make some money.
He does worry about the future of his collection. His children aren鈥檛 interested in taking it over, and he can鈥檛 find any appropriate institution to assume custody of these precious chopsticks.
He refuses to sell any of them to make ends meet. He says he worries that buyers won鈥檛 take proper care of them. 鈥淪o what鈥檚 to become of the chopsticks?鈥 he asks. 鈥淚 just don鈥檛 know.鈥
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
