Zhudong Report 07 – Bamboo Chopsticks

Chinese New Year has almost arrived! Apart from money, what else do you plan on giving your family? In his youth, the now 92-years-old Gu Sheng-qian lived with his poor family in the mountainous area of Ruifeng in Hsinchu. A journey to the local town was long and arduous, and so, from the tender age of just 12, he learned the art of fashioning chopsticks and household furniture from Makino bamboo. Following the traditional Chinese custom of replacing the old with the new, each year as the family gets together for its annual reunion Gu family members discard their old chopsticks for newly fashioned ones.

Of course today there is a great selection of cheap high-quality chopsticks on the market, but the Gu family insists on carving them by hand. The chopsticks, which are unlike the sharply pointed chopsticks commonly seen today, are rectangular around the section used for gripping and slowly taper into an elegantly rounded tip for clutching food – both convenient for eating and helping to retain the traditional shape of chopsticks.

So, ahead of the end-of-year family reunion, Mr Gu’s son Gu Rui-lin, makes his yearly trip to the surrounding mountains in search of three to four year Makino bamboo which is first sawn, cut and planed into chopsticks before being boiled and sun-dried. Only then are the chopsticks ready for the Gu family chopstick ceremony on Chinese New Year’s Eve, where the old are replaced with the new – each grown-up sibling receives a dozen brand-spanking new chopsticks.

Zhudong Report 07 – Bamboo Chopsticks (the warmest inheritance) (by CJ tlhsusow)

URL:

http://www.peopo.org/portal.php?op=viewPost&articleId=97193

(以下是中文對照)

竹東圳訪查07－竹筷(最溫馨的傳承) ( 海茄苳 )

照片

快過年了！除了壓歲錢您還會送給家人甚麼？92歲的古盛謙小時候家貧又住在新竹瑞峰山區，不容易進市區買東西，所以古先生從12歲時就學習利用桂竹製作筷子或家具等。每一年的歲末，古盛謙就開始做竹筷子，在吃年夜團圓飯的時候，全面更換掉舊竹筷改用新筷，做了八十年竹筷，即使現在價美物廉的筷子很多，但是古盛謙還是手工削出要給家人使用的筷子，手握的地方呈現四方，夾物的地方略小而圓形，不同於現在尖尖頭的筷子，仍保留傳統的形式，方便夾食物。現在每年歲末，古老先生的兒子古瑞麟仍上山挑選三四年的桂竹，砍下，經過鋸，剖，刨，再將竹筷煮過，曬乾，之後做成筷子，在除夕夜將家裡的筷子換新，也送給每位成家的兒女一打新筷子。

為擴大服務範圍，自2010年4月起，PeoPo每周精選三則公民報導及相關活動與發展，翻譯成英文摘要，讓更多關心台灣公民新聞的朋友，瞭解台灣在地大小事。