Faced with the spread of the coronavirus, the government is promoting using serving utensils, but resistance is strong. Sharing food with personal chopsticks is one way Chinese people express intimacy.
上圖：直到最近，北京一家名為椒小廚的餐館才開始提供公筷。Above：Serving chopsticks only recently appeared on the table at Chilli Kitchen, a restaurant in Beijing.
在北京的椒小廚餐館，麻辣的川菜按照家中上菜的方式擺放。就餐者用紅色筷子從熱氣騰騰的碗裡，夾起泡在香噴噴的辣椒油和芝麻裡的豬肉抄手，在全是幹辣椒的盤子裡翻找多汁的烤魚。
At Chilli Kitchen in Beijing, spicy and mouth-numbing Sichuan dishes are laid out family style. Using red chopsticks, diners dive into steaming bowls of pork wontons bathed in fragrant chili oil and sesame seeds, and rummage through platters filled with dried red chili peppers to unearth juicy bits of roasted fish.
Sharing food is a central feature of how Chinese people, like many elsewhere in the world, convey affection. Parents pick up choice morsels and place them in their children’s bowls as an expression of love; children serve their grandparents to show their respect; and bosses do it as a gesture of magnanimity toward their employees.
現在，人們越來越擔心，中國分享食物的悠久傳統，也可能加速新冠病毒的傳播。政府瞄準了一個無處不在的器具：筷子。
Now, concerns are growing that the country’s long tradition of sharing food could also accelerate the spread of the coronavirus. The government has zeroed in on a ubiquitous utensil: chopsticks.
大多數中國用餐者，從公盤裡夾食物、自己吃飯或給別人夾菜，用的都是同一雙筷子。一筷多用很常見。但是政府希望敦促人們使用公筷，改變這個習慣。
Most Chinese diners pick up food from communal platters with the same pair of chopsticks that they then use to eat, or serve others. Double dipping is the norm. But the government hopes to change habits by urging people to use a second pair of chopsticks — just for serving.
官方新聞機構稱其為 「餐桌革命」。
State news agencies are calling it a 「dining table revolution.」
鍾南山博士和張文宏博士都是直言不諱的傳染病專家，自疫情暴發以來已成為名人，他們也表示了支持。全國各地的政府部門都在打出這樣的標語：「你和文明飲食的距離，差一雙公筷。」
Dr. Zhong Nanshan and Dr. Zhang Wenhong, outspoken infectious disease experts who have become celebrities since the start of the outbreak, have voiced their support. The authorities across the country are running advertisements with slogans like: 「The distance between you and civilized dining is just one pair of serving chopsticks.」
上圖：本世紀初，香港暴發SARS疫情，導致近300人死亡。此後，餐廳裡的公筷變得普遍起來。Above: Serving utensils became common at restaurants in Hong Kong after an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, killed nearly 300 people in the early 2000s.
一些餐館和就餐者已經響應了這一號召。他們為使用公筷的顧客提供折扣。在中國東部城市杭州，100多家餐飲名店組成了 「公筷聯盟」。
Some restaurants and diners have heeded the call. They are offering discounts to diners who use serving chopsticks. In the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, more than 100 prominent restaurants have formed a 「Serving Chopsticks Alliance.」
在北京，椒小廚的店主之一，白一文估計，自從4月中旬重新開張以來，他的餐館有超過一半的顧客要求提供公筷，而在疫情之前，這一比例還不到5%。
In Beijing, Bai Yiwen, one of the owners of Chilli Kitchen, reckons that since reopening in mid-April, more than half of the groups that come to his restaurants have asked for serving chopsticks, up from less than 5 percent before the pandemic.
「以前大家覺得公筷太麻煩，」 31歲的白一文說。「但現在大家都開始意識到這個問題，慢慢也開始適應了。」
「Before, people felt like using serving chopsticks was bothersome,」 Mr. Bai, 31, said. 「But now, everyone is becoming more aware of the problem and slowly they are getting used to it.」
儘管如此，阻力仍然很大。許多人認為，用自己的筷子分享食物是中國社會文化和重視家庭的真實表達方式之一，就像擁抱對美國人，或親吻臉頰對法國人一樣不可或缺。
Still, resistance is strong. Many see sharing food with one’s own chopsticks as among the most authentic expressions of China’s communal culture and emphasis on family, no less integral than hugging is to Americans or the cheek kiss is to the French.
公筷通常與正式場合聯繫在一起，比如宴會，以及同陌生人吃飯。
Serving chopsticks are typically associated with formal settings, like banquets and meals with strangers.
在北京和上海這樣的大城市，公筷更為普遍，因為那裡的衛生意識更強。一些長江以北的中國人認為吃米飯的南方人更注重飲食習慣，因此更有可能使用公筷。（並沒有證據支持這種刻板印象哦。）
Serving chopsticks are more common in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where there is a greater awareness of hygiene. Some Chinese who hail from north of the Yangtze River see their southern, rice-eating counterparts as more particular about their eating habits, and so more likely to use serving chopsticks. (There is no evidence supporting this stereotype.)
相比之下，吃麵食的北方人，尤其是男人，以中國人所謂的 「大吃大喝」 為豪，並不關心細菌之類的小問題。不管怎樣，政府專家最近做了一個小實驗，發現使用公筷的情況下，盤子裡的細菌含量只有正常使用筷子情況下的0.4%。
By contrast, wheat-eating northerners, and particularly the men, take pride in what Chinese call 「eating big and drinking big,」 without care for such petty concerns as germs and bacteria. Never mind a small, recent experiment by government experts who found that the level of bacteria in dishes for which serving chopsticks were used was as little as 0.4 percent the level of dishes shared in the regular fashion.
32歲的劉鵬是一名教育顧問，來自海濱城市青島，是一名自豪的北方人。他說，雖然近幾個月已經習慣了戴口罩，但和朋友們的飲食習慣並沒有改變。
Liu Peng, 32, an education consultant and proud northerner from the coastal city of Qingdao, said that while he had grown accustomed to wearing a mask in recent months, he and his friends had not changed their dining habits.
「公筷可能更衛生，但吃飯是我們大家放鬆的時間，不想有那麼多小規矩，」劉鵬說。此外，他認為，新冠病毒的傳染性那麼強，用公筷並不能阻止病毒在餐桌上傳播。
「Maybe using serving chopsticks is more hygienic but eating is the time for us all to relax, and we don’t want to be bothered by all these little rules,」 Mr. Liu said. Besides, he reasoned, the new coronavirus was so contagious that serving chopsticks were not going to stop the virus from spreading around a table.
「我出去吃飯30年了，從來沒感染過，」他說。
「In my 30 years of eating out, I』ve never contracted an infection,」 he declared.
左圖：香港一家餐館的顧客用熱茶清洗餐具。右圖：使用不同的筷子夾菜和吃飯。Left: A customer using hot tea to wash the tableware at a restaurant in Hong Kong. Right: Using separate sets of chopsticks for serving and eating.
本世紀初暴發SARS之後，亞洲各地也曾發起類似推廣公筷的活動。
Similar campaigns to promote serving chopsticks were launched across Asia after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in the early 2000s.
這一行動在香港獲得了支持，當時有近300人在那次疫情中死亡。即使在今天，香港許多餐館在每個餐桌上，都會擺放用來夾菜的公筷和用來吃飯的筷子，兩種筷子通常是不同的顏色；其他餐館經常把公勺和公筷直接放在菜盤邊上。
The drive gained traction in Hong Kong, where nearly 300 people died in that outbreak. Even today, many restaurants in Hong Kong lay two sets of chopsticks at each place setting, one pair for serving and another, often a different-colored pair, for eating. Other restaurants in the city often place serving spoons and chopsticks directly on the dishes.
但這一推廣活動在中國大陸幾乎沒有引起注意。大多數中國人從小就掌握了使用筷子的基本禮儀：從筷頭向上三分之二的部分拿筷子；不要把筷子垂直插進飯碗裡，因為這樣好像祭奠死者的香火；不要吮吸筷頭。
But the campaign barely registered in China. Most Chinese grow up learning the basics of chopstick etiquette: Hold them two-thirds of the way up; don’t stick them vertically into your rice bowl because it resembles incense offerings for the deceased; and don’t suck on them.
與家人和朋友分享食物，是一種根深蒂固的習慣，公筷有時被認為會破壞這種親密的表達。僅僅是要求額外的餐具就已經顯得很尷尬，因為這可能意味著你覺得共餐者可能不健康。
Sharing food with family and friends is just as deeply ingrained, and serving chopsticks are sometimes seen as undermining that expression of closeness. Just asking for the extra utensils can be awkward because it could imply that you think your fellow diners might be unwell.
在中國創辦了一所高端禮儀學校的香港人何佩嶸說，請客的時候，她總說自己有點感冒，為了保護大家，要求使用公筷。
Sara Jane Ho, a Hong Kong native and founder of a high-end etiquette school in China, said that when she hosts a meal, she often says she has a small cold so she can ask for serving chopsticks to protect everyone else from her.
即便如此，她說，也不能保證大家都會遵守。
But even then, she said, compliance is not guaranteed.
「你經常會看到人們給自己夾菜後，忘了換筷子，直接用公筷吃飯，」何佩嶸說。「我心臟病都要犯了。」
「Often you』ll see people serving themselves and then they forget to switch chopsticks and start eating directly with the serving pair,」 Ms. Ho said. 「It always gives me a mini heart attack.」
為了說明政府這一主張的必要性，官方媒體和飲食史學家在中國歷史中搜索，尋找以公筷和分餐制為規範的例子。有新聞報導稱，唐朝之前的3000年裡，中國人都是實行分餐制的。這些文章指出，在公元10世紀的名畫《韓熙載夜宴圖》中，朝中臣子宴請賓客時，也是分餐而食的。
The cause was taken up by Wu Lien-teh, a Chinese doctor from British Malaya, who is often credited with saving many lives during the 1910 outbreak of pneumonic plague in northeastern China. Dr. Wu helped popularize the use of serving chopsticks along with the use of a lazy Susan, the round rotating platform known in Chinese as the 「hygienic table.」
英屬馬來亞的華人醫生伍連德繼承了這個做法。普遍認為，1910年代中國東北鼠疫暴發中，是他拯救了許多人的生命。在伍連德的推動下，公筷和中文中被稱為「衛生餐桌」 的 「懶蘇珊」 轉盤得以普及。
The cause was taken up by Wu Lien-teh, a Chinese doctor from British Malaya, who is often credited with saving many lives during the 1910 outbreak of pneumonic plague in northeastern China. Dr. Wu helped popularize the use of serving chopsticks along with the use of a lazy Susan, the round rotating platform known in Chinese as the 「hygienic table.」
據中國飲食史學家趙榮光說，即使是據說不愛洗澡、從不刷牙的毛澤東，受到第二任妻子的父親的影響，也曾使用公筷。
Even Mao Zedong, who supposedly rarely bathed and never brushed his teeth, was at one point said to have used serving chopsticks, thanks to the influence of the father of Mao’s second wife, according to Zhao Rongguang, a Chinese food historian.
但共餐的做法仍繼續存在。1984年，時任中共中央總書記、熱衷於自由化的胡耀邦建議大家放棄筷子和共餐制，轉而採用西式的分餐做法，以避免傳染病。這個建議未獲重視，很快就無人提及了。
But the practice of sharing food has nonetheless persisted. In 1984, Hu Yaobang, then general secretary of the Communist Party and a passionate liberalizer, suggested that his countrymen abandon chopsticks and communal eating in favor of Western-style individual dining practices to avoid contagious diseases. The idea was promptly ignored and forgotten.
飲食史學家趙榮光表示，新冠疫情是重振 「文明就餐」 運動的契機。
Mr. Zhao, the historian, sees the coronavirus epidemic as an opportunity to revive the movement for 「civilized dining.」
「中國過去這種人手一筷搓到底真的要改了，再不改要被人類淘汰、被自然淘汰它，」 趙榮光說。
「If we don’t change this practice of 『using one pair of chopsticks to dig to the bottom』 then we are going to be eliminated forever by humanity and natural selection,」 Mr. Zhao said.
但是，除非制定具體法律，否則改變習慣將是一場艱苦的戰鬥，尤其是在大城市之外的地方。
But unless a specific law is enacted, changing habits will be an uphill battle, particularly outside of the big cities.
27歲的舒曉，是西南省份雲南玉溪的一名教師，對於她來說，共餐制讓她感到不安。她說，去年當地出現腸胃炎疫情暴發的報導後，家人就開始在家裡使用公筷了。
For Shu Xiao, 27, a schoolteacher in Yuxi, a city in the southwestern province of Yunnan, group dinners can be discomfiting. Ms. Shu said her family has used serving chopsticks at home since last year, when reports were circulating about a local outbreak of stomach bacteria.
和朋友出去吃飯時，她無法鼓起勇氣索要公筷。取而代之的是，她試著吃同伴不大碰到的部分食物，並壓下桌子上到處都是細菌的念頭。
When she goes out to dinner with her friends, she can’t muster the courage to ask for extra sets of chopsticks, she said. Instead, she tries to eat only from the parts of the dishes least touched by her companions, and fights the urge to think about how much bacteria is being circulated around the table.
「我的朋友們已經覺得我家用公筷有點奇怪了，」她說，「所以我只能按照大家的意思來，儘管心裡，總是有一點點不認同的。」
「My friends already think my family is kind of strange for using serving chopsticks at home,」 she said. 「So I just go along with the mainstream, even though in my heart I’m always protesting a little.」
英國《衛報》認為，公筷在日本、韓國和亞洲其它地方更為常見。，在中國的高檔餐廳裡也能看見，但人們在家中很少使用；與家人或朋友聚餐時，人們也不常使用公筷。
The gongkuai – more common in Japan, Korea or Taiwan – tend to be seen at higher-end restaurants in China and rarely used at home. Among family or friends, asking for the serving utensils can be awkward or perceived as rude.
「（使用公筷的）障礙在於『我們必須在一起喝酒、一起吃飯，必須親密無間』的傳統觀念。」《筷子：文化與烹飪史》一書作者、美國羅文大學教授愛德華·王對《衛報》指出，這種觀念根深蒂固。
「The obstacle is the traditional notion that we have to drink together and eat together and not show any distance,」 said Q Edward Wang, the author of Chopsticks: A Cultural and Culinary History. 「That kind of notion is well-entrenched in Chinese society as well as around the world,」 he said.
中國人從小就被教導使用筷子的禮儀，其中重要的一條是，一個人應該只接觸自己想吃的食物。但中國衛生官員表示，這種做法為唾液中的細菌，從自己的餐具傳播到大家共享的菜餚上留下了太多機會。
Under chopstick etiquette, taught at an early age, one should touch only the food one intends to eat. But Chinese health officials say the practice leaves too much opportunity for germs to be passed through saliva from one’s own set of utensils to the shared dishes.
中國有關部門認為，共享餐食是新冠病毒在中國傳播的一種方式，尤其是在家庭當中。中國-世界衛生組織新冠肺炎聯合專家考察組表示，從廣東和四川的現場考察來看，78%至85%的新冠肺炎聚集病例發生在家庭。
Authorities believe sharing meals was one way the virus was passed on in China, especially among families that accounted for 85% of infection clusters in Guangdong and Sichuan province, according to the World Health Organization.
北京的一些廣告牌號召市民加入公筷活動，標語是：「愛是多一雙筷子」。從6月開始，北京的餐廳將按要求提供 「公筷公勺」，企業可定製帶有 「公」 字標識的餐具。政府還建議有條件的餐飲企業積極推廣分餐制。
In Beijing, billboards call for citizens to join the campaign under the tagline: 「Love is one more pair of chopsticks.」 Starting in June, restaurants will be required to provide serving utensils and when possible to offer separate portions.
運動似乎正在起作用。浙江一家筷子廠的經理表示，公筷訂單增加了30%。這種筷子的製作時間比普通筷子更長，裝飾也不同。
The campaign appears to be working at restaurants. A manager at the Tianzhu chopstick factory in Zhejiang province told us the company has seen orders for gongkuai, which are longer and decorated differently, go up as much as 30%.
以北京烤鴨聞名的連鎖餐廳花家怡園，上菜時配有兩雙筷子、兩把勺子。
At Huajia Yiyuan, a chain known for its Beijing roast duck, each place setting has two pairs of chopsticks and two spoons.
北京簋街一家很受歡迎的火鍋店裡，所有桌子都配有公筷公勺。「顧客很願意使用它們。」 20歲的藍洛石說，「如果我跟朋友出門吃飯，比如涮火鍋，我也一定會用公筷。」
At a popular hotpot restaurant on Beijing’s Ghost Street, all tables come with a set of the serving utensils. 「Customers are very willing to use them,」 said Lan Luoshi, 20, who works there. 「If I go out with friends to eat or for hotpot, I will definitely use gongkuai,」 she said.
改變全家尤其是老一代人的習慣可能並不容易。家庭聚餐中一個常見的場景是，長輩用自己的筷子把食物夾進晚輩碗裡。年輕的家庭成員也會把食物夾給長者以示尊重，夫妻之間則以彼此夾菜表達愛意。
Changing habits at home and among the older generation may be harder. A common scene at family dinners involves relatives using their own chopsticks to put food on the plates of younger members of the family. Younger family members serve food to their older relatives as a sign of respect, while couples get food for each other in a show of affection.
當然，許多人不認為有必要在家裡使用單獨的餐具。引新浪最近的一項在線調查稱，650多名受訪者中，一半人在家不用公筷或公勺，因為 「我們是一家人」。
Many do not regard using the designated serving utensils as necessary at home. In a recent online poll by Sina Shanghai, half of more than 650 respondents said they would not use gongkuai or gongshao at home, agreeing with the response: 「I won’t. We are all one family.」
推廣公筷公勺不是中國飲食文化迎來的唯一改變。曾經熙熙攘攘的餐廳變成了安靜的場所，許多餐廳把每桌的食客限制在最多兩人，餐桌之間距離至少為1米。
Chinese eating culture may be changing in other ways, away from crowded, bustling restaurants to quieter affairs. Many restaurants limit the size of dining parties to two and place tables at least 1 metre apart.
一群看起來像同事的客人，走進北京一家商場裡的麵館，十分自然地分成了幾個小組，在不同的桌邊就餐。麵館裡50歲的廚師施說，他和妻子幾乎不再邀請朋友來家裡吃飯。
Shi, 50, a chef at a noodle shop in a mall in Beijing’s Chaoyang district says he and his wife now rarely invite friends over. He recently noticed a group of co-workers come into his restaurant and naturally split into smaller groups, eating at separate tables.
「疫情改變了很多事情。」 施說，「如果疫情能夠改變探親訪友的習俗，那麼改變我們用筷子的方式也沒那麼難。」
「The epidemic has already changed big things,」 he said. During lunar new year in late January, authorities called on residents not to visit families, a key tradition for the holiday. 「If the outbreak can change that, changing how we use chopsticks is nothing,」 he said.
筷子花了幾百年，才成為中國人的主要餐具，愛德華·王認為，改變現代飲食習慣雖然困難，但不會花那麼長的時間。
According to Wang, it took hundreds of years for chopsticks to become the staple utensil. Changing modern eating habits, while difficult, should not take as long. 「Customs are much more powerful than policy,」 he said.
「習俗比政策更有影響力。」 他對《衛報》說，「但疫情和政策能提供一些動力。人們會逐漸適應這樣一種觀念：哪怕不分享食物，我們仍然是朋友。」
「The pandemic and the government directives will provide some impetus. Gradually people will become more adjusted to the idea that even if we don’t share food, we are still friends.」
Illustration & Graphic ｜Cheung
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