Sean Kinsell: 割り箸

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Sean Kinsell:
割り箸
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1195012784.shtml


   Joel at [1]Far Outliers usually posts excerpts from books and articles
   that are not otherwise readily available online. He has a very good
   eye, so his blog is worth reading just for that.
   However, a few weeks ago when I wasn't looking, he started [2]posting
   pieces of his own writing from twenty-odd years ago when he was
   teaching English in the PRC. It makes for fascinating reading. Back
   then, despite Deng Xiaoping's gingerly moves toward liberalization,
   most Americans didn't get much information about China. The multi-part
   documentary [3]The Heart of the Dragon, which aired on PBS in the
   States, was about as good as it got. (Things were similar with the
   Soviet Union--anyone else remember watching the "Comrades" series on
   Frontline?)
   One thing that caught my attention was a passage from [4]this post:

     In China those who have tap water don't drink it. Almost all the
     water and tea consumed each day by one billion Chinese goes through
     a kettle and thermos bottle first.
     There must be at least a billion thermos bottles. If each thermos
     bottle is emptied twice a day, then four billion liters of water
     pour out of the mouths of thermoses each day.
     Boiled water is the universal cleanser. Diners in China's typically
     grimy eating places often rinse their tableware with hot water or
     tea before they eat or drink anything. Some roadside eateries
     reassure their customers by bringing out all the tableware in a
     large soup bowl full of scalding water. The customers can rinse
     everything themselves.
     Disposable eating utensils, like disposable medical supplies, are
     just coming into use in China. A recent China Daily letter to the
     editor lauded the growing practice of providing disposable
     chopsticks in restaurants in Beijing.

   How times change. By 2000, disposable chopsticks were ubiquitous in
   China and had started to draw fire because so many trees were being
   cut down to make them. Last year, the PRC [5]started putting taxes on
   them:

     The disposable splints of wood, usually between eight and 10 inches
     long, have long been a target for Chinese environmentalists.
     ...
     In recent years, the government has actually encouraged their use,
     in a bid to reduce the spread of infectious illnesses by sharing
     eating utensils.

   A lot of China's product has been exported here to Japan; I read
   somewhere years ago that over 90% of the disposable chopsticks
   consumed here came from the PRC. It's been proposed that such exports
   be banned as early as 2008.
   Perhaps China has reached a stage at which the tradeoff involved in
   not making disposable chopsticks freely available in order to preserve
   the environment is a good one. It's worth noting, though, that (as
   both Joel and the BBC mention) single-use utensils help close one path
   through which communicable diseases spread, which was no mean
   consideration in crowded, developing China.
   The rest of Joel's posts make interesting reading, too.

References

   1. http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/
   2. http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
   3. http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Dragon-Alasdair-Clayre/dp/039535336X
   4. http://faroutliers.blogspot.com/2007/10/china-diary-1988-land-of-billion.html
   5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4831734.stm