33 Keys to Decoding the Korean Wave, Hallyu 

#6 The Magic of Metal Chopsticks 

The Secret of Korean dexterity: Archery, Golf, IT, Plastic Surgery & Piano 

*한류를 이해하는 33가지 코드 #6 쇠젓가락 유전자 <한국어 버전, Korean version>

http://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=Focus&document_srl=4075479

Bronze Spoons and Chopsticks, Goryeo (1918-1392), National Museum of Korea

Olympic Women's Archery, Women’s Golf, WorldSkills, Semiconductor, IT, Plastic Surgery, Piano, Chicken Sexer, Chef, Nail Salon, Thumb Culture... Koreans have achieved remarkable success in fields that require a high level of concentration, precise technology and delicate dexterity. Could a reason be that we use metal chopsticks which are different from those of Chinese and Japanese?  It is said that chopsticks, with over 30 joints and more than 50 muscles involved, have a significant impact on intelligence development, as well as improving concentration, muscle control, and emotional quotient. Heavy metal chopsticks are more effective than wooden chopsticks in enhancing brain and motor functions. 

#"The secret to success in women's archery in Korea is kimchi and chopsticks"

-Reuters-

In July 2012, in the midst of the London Olympics, Reuters news agency pointed to “kimchi & chopsticks” as the dominant factors in Korean women's archery. Reuters reporter Peter Rutherford wrote an article titled “Archery: Chopsticks, kimchi fingers the key to success?” He analyzed the secret of the success of the Korean women’s archery teams that won gold medals at the Barcelona-Atlanta-Sydney-Athens-Beijing-London Olympics, Korea’s seventh consecutive women’s team gold. No other country has won the gold medal since the team event was introduced at the 1988 Games in Seoul. 

According to the article, one of theories of Korean women’s prolific success is that Korean women excel at sports such as archery and golf because of heightened sensitivity and dexterity in their hands and fingers. The story continues: “This sensitivity supposedly developed generations ago through the traditional method of making the national dish kimchi, where women use their hands to lovingly squeeze, swirl and smear hot pepper paste over cabbage leaves for hours on end.” 

 https://ko.wikipedia.org

Another explanation of Korean women’s dexterity lies in the traditional eating utensil - Korean chopsticks. The coach for the Korean women’s archery team Paik said:  “Doctors talk about ‘chopstick technology’... Our women archers have excellent feeling with their fingers. They know whether they shot well or not immediately after the arrow leaves their fingers.” Reuters stressed: “While other Asian countries also use chopsticks, they tend to be longer, wooden implements, relatively easy to use. Korean chopsticks are made of slippery, slender steel and are incredibly difficult to master.” Reuters added: “the driven, disciplined and devoted to training Korean archers live and breathe their sport.”

Image: World Archery/ Telegraph Sports

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Korean archery team won a total of 7 medals, including 5 gold medals, 1 silver medal, and 1 bronze medal. The team swept the men's and women's individual events (Lim Si-hyeon/Kim Woo-jin), men's and women's team events, and mixed team events. Notably, the women's team achieved their 10th consecutive gold medal since archery became an official event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. <Update, August 2024>

The Chopstick Theory was well known when Hwang Woo-suk, a Korean scientist who fabricated stem cell cloning of a dog (an Afghan hound called Snuppy), said at a press conference in 2005: “This work can be done much better in Oriental hands, we can pick up very slippery corn or rice with the steel chopsticks.”  (Dr. Hwang was the subject of a later scandal when his revolutionary claims of having cloned human embryos from which he extracted stem cells were discredited as fabrications).

*33 codes to understand the Korean Wave #12 Green queens, golf goddesses

#Chopsticks Gene: International Skills Olympics

Status of the International Skills Olympic Games  https://ko.wikipedia.org/ The 26th WorldSkills winners at the welcome ceremony in 1981. Photo: Seoul City

Koreans have shown off their capabilities at the WorldSkills, an international competition in which young people around the world compete for their vocational skills. WorldSkills, which started in Spain in 1950, are held in various categories: Construction and building technology/ Creative arts and fashion/ Information and communication technology/ Manufacturing and engineering technology/ Social and personal services/ Transportation and logistics. And most of the participants are under 22 years old. 

From the 23rd Worldskills competition in 1977 to the 43rd WorldSkills in 2015, for 21 years, Korea has won the overall championship 19 times and runner-up twice.  It proves the dexterity of Koreans who have almost monopolized the championship since the Utrecht (Netherlands) tournament in 1977. The lowest performance of a Korean team in the history of participating in the International Skills Olympic Games was the third place (behind China and Russia) at the 2019 event held in Kazan, Russia.  After returning home, the winners of the 1970s WorldSkills competitions were welcomed by a triumphant car parade from the Kimpo Airport to the City Hall of Seoul, and the winners were awarded Industrial Medals and prize money. 

#Semiconductor, IT, plastic surgery, classical music powerhouse

Chopsticks were part of the Samsung Electronics advertisement “I believe in the potential power of our people” in 2005

Precise manual work was also essential to Korea becoming a powerhouse in semiconductors and information & technology (IT). The winner of the 2005 Korean Advertising Awards was ‘Chopsticks,’ a Samsung Electronics’ corporate PR advertisement “We believe in the potential power of our nation" campaign. This was an advertisement featuring metal chopsticks with soybeans as key art in the ad title of “The nation that picks beans with metal chopsticks, creating an IT powerhouse.” Semiconductors and IT emphasized the sophisticated and delicate dexterity of Korean people.

“Our research team, which created human embryonic stem cells by directly cloning somatic cells for the first time in the world,” said in an interview with the New York Times in. “Who other than Koreans can pick up beans with metal chopsticks? With such delicate craftsmanship, we made wigs and dolls and made the name of Korea known to the world for the first time. Now, it has earned a reputation as IT Korea by making high-tech products such as semiconductors, LCD and mobile phones. The technology that will lead the world of the future is nanotechnology! It is a precision technology that handles one billionth of a meter, so we will be able to do it better than anyone else. Because we are a nation with more delicate dexterity than any other nation in the world...” 

-We believe in the potential power of our nation-

“Chopsticks” a.k.a. “The Celebrated Chop Waltz solo for piano” was written by a 16-year-old English girl named Euphemia Allen under the pseudonym Arthur de Lull in 1877. The Korean people used to drink and sing along while pounding their chopsticks in excitement. The table became a drum, and the chopsticks become drumsticks to match the rhythm. The restaurant was transformed into a karaoke.  

Although the history of classical music in Korea is short, Korean pianists have set outstanding records in competitions. So, is there a relationship between using chopsticks and playing the piano? Seong-Jin Cho (Winner of Chopin Piano Competition 2015), Sunwook Kim (Winner of Leeds Competition in 2006), Chloe Jiyeong Mun (Winner of Busoni Competition 2015, Geneva Competition 2014), Yekwon Sunwoo (Winner of William Kapell Competition 2012 and Van Cliburn Competition 2017), and Yunchan Lim (Winner of Van Clibun Competition 2022) to name a few. Kim Dae-jin, professor and president of Korea National University of Arts and winner of the 1985 Cleveland Piano Competition, once remarked, "Koreans develop excellent dexterity with chopsticks from a young age, and they also possess an innate musical ability."

*33 Keys to Decoding the Korean Wave, Hallyu #13 Classical Competition Powerhouse KOREA

The best thumbs in the world belong to Koreans. The New York Times reported that at the LG Mobile World Cup held in New York in January 2010, Korean youth Bae Yeong-ho (17) and Ha Mok-min (16) won the championship. The newspaper reported in “Rule of Thumbs: Koreans Reign in Texting World,” that Bae struck 6 letters per second and Ha struck 7.25 letters per second. 

Books about the Korean plastic surgeries

“The most important thing in plastic surgery is dexterity. There is no country that can match the hand skills of Koreans in plastic surgery.”

-JK Plastic Surgery Clinic CEO Joo Kwon-

Korea’s plastic surgery technology is also the best in the world.

Director Kim Hyun-seong of Suwon Nanoori Hospital said in a column for the Chosun Ilbo, “Minimally invasive spine surgery, especially spinal endoscopic surgery, is a treatment that needs to be developed for 100-year-old health, but requires very detailed manual. It cannot be denied that the chopstick culture has played a major role in the development of spinal endoscopic surgery.” When foreign doctors often ask, “How do Korean doctors perform so well?,” his answer was always the same. “Korea is the only country where I have been using metal chopsticks since I was born,” he replied. And, if given the opportunity, he recommended foreign doctors to practice using metal chopsticks.

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932 for “The Good Earth,” lived in China from with her missionary parents, from the age of four months until entering college. Familiar with Asian culture, she visited Korea in November 1960. When she saw the evenly shredded radish in a restaurant, she thought it was cut with a machine. After learning that it was cut by hand, she said, “It’s not food, it’s art.” Also, when she saw a child in elementary school picking up a bean with chopsticks, she said, “This is a circus.” These are some of the episodes in which Pearl Buck was surprised by the dexterity of Koreans.

Chopsticks and techniques of Korea, China and Japan

Seonghyup, Outdoor Banquet, Late 19th Century, Collection of Seonghyup Customs and Genre Paintings, National Museum of Korea

Today, a fifth of the world’s population (1.5 billion people) use chopsticks to eat food every day. According to a 2014 survey, 15% of Americans said they were very good at using chopsticks, and 24% said they had never used them. 

Professor Lee O-young (1934-2022), who served as the first Korean Minister of Culture (1990-1991), said in his book, “Chopsticks Cultural Gene” (2016): “Korea, China, and Japan harbor the cultural gene of chopstick quality. The only tool the three countries have used together for 2,000 years is not the Chinese character, food, or language, only chopsticks. The oriental culture of combining, assembling, and connecting is contained in a small tool, chopsticks. Chopsticks are not just tools, they are a part of the body and a part of the universe.”

Professor Lee also pointed out that the difference from China and Japan is that Koreans use not only chopsticks, but also a spoon as a set. Since Koreans eat rice, soup or stew, and side dishes together at a meal, the use of spoons should be coordinated. This requires precise dexterity.

#Korean chopsticks

Stainless Steel 1 Set Korean Style Metal Chopsticks Spoon Set, Amazon.com

It is estimated that chopsticks have been used in Korea since Three Kingdom period. During the Baekje Kingdom (18 BC- 660 AD), the royal family used a silver spoon to check whether food was poisonous (as silver changes color when exposed to toxins), while commoners used a steel spoon. Metal chopsticks such as bronze chopsticks during the Three Kingdoms period, brass chopsticks from the middle of the Joseon Dynasty, and stainless steel chopsticks from the 1970s have been mainly used. There are many pickled foods such as kimchi in Korean food, and metal is more hygienic than wood for such foods. In order to save as much metal as possible, they are shorter and flatter than the chopsticks generally used in Japan and China.

In China and Japan, chopsticks are the mainstay and spoons are secondary. But in Korea, chopsticks and spoons are used equally. Soup and rice are eaten with spoons, and dishes and side dishes are eaten with chopsticks. In Korea, there are a lot of soup dishes, and the spoons are made of brass or silver and paired with metal chopsticks. The philosophy of yin and yang is embedded in Korean spoons. Metal chopsticks are heavy and slippery, making them more difficult to use than Chinese and Japanese chopsticks.

https://twitter.com/Koreaboo

#Chinese chopsticks

China is the birthplace of chopsticks. Q. Edward Yang, in his book “Chopsticks,” wrote that a long bone rod, believed to be the prototype of chopsticks, was excavated at a cultural site from the Xinjiang period in China, suggesting that chopsticks were already used around the 5th millennium BC. Two sticks using the principle of levers, chopsticks are extensions of human fingers.

Chopsticks were used for meals about 3,000 years ago, and as Chinese cooking methods such as boiling or steaming developed, chopsticks were used to pick up ingredients from hot soup. The commoners used bamboo chopsticks, and the wealthy used ivory, gold, silver, and copper chopsticks. Chinese people often sit around a large round table to eat, so chopsticks are longer for reaching food. The tips of chopsticks are blunt and thick because they are bulky and heavy, such as for fried and stir-fried dishes.

#Japanese chopsticks

It is estimated that Japan used chopsticks from 1,500 years ago, 300 years later than Korea. The Japanese do not share food, but eat it on individual plates. Instead of using a spoon, they hold the rice bowl with chopsticks and eat. They also hold a bowl of soup and drink from the bowl. The sharp tip of the chopsticks is to remove the fish thorns well. Mostly wooden chopsticks are used, but there are also ceramic and lacquer chopsticks. Chopsticks are placed on a pedestal and placed horizontally.

In Japan, since 1980, Chopsticks Day (August 4) has been established to educate people on how to use chopsticks, and to pray for health by throwing bunches of chopsticks into flames and burning them. In Korea, the first Chopsticks Festival was held in Cheongju on  November 11, 2015 as “Chopsticks Day” at the suggestion of Professor Lee O-young. 

#Professor Lee O-young “Chopsticks Praise”

Cheongju Mayor Lee Seung-hoon (left) and Professor Lee O-young at the 1st Cheongju Chopsticks Festival in 2015. Photo: Lee O-young Copyright Preservation Committee

“Korea is the only country where the names of eating utensils are linked to the human body. Spoons and chopsticks are extensions of ‘fingers’. A club is an extension of a fist and an extension of a muscle, but a chopstick is an extension of a finger and an extension of a nerve. The club, a symbol of strength, is bigger and more blunt than a fist, but chopsticks, an extension of delicacy, should be thinner and more pointed than fingers. Chopsticks are like avatars through which the blood and nerves of my body are connected.”

 -Lee O-young-

Books about Chopsticks 

#Korean Immigrants’ Dexterity Shines : Chicken Sexers & Nail Salons

Chickens, Photo: Keith Weller (USDA ARS) /Joy Joy Nails, 18m, 2017, directed by Joey Ally

In the 1970s, many Koreans immigrated to the United States to work as a “chicken sexer.” In the poultry industry, these technicians, who distinguish the sexes of newborn chicks immediately after hatching, distinguish between males and females by small bump in the anal vent, feather and color. This requires good eyesight, delicate and quick hand movements, high concentration, and endurance, and was a high-paying job dominated by Koreans.

Today, along with laundry and greengrocers (delis), the nail salon business is a major industry for Korean immigrants in the United States, and is also where Koreans shine with their dexterity. Before the 1970s, most nail salons in New York were run by immigrants of Russian descent. After that, as the English language skills and education levels of Russian immigrants increased, they moved to other industries, and were replaced by Korean immigrants with high education levels, but also high English language barriers. In 1992, there were 1,400 Korean nail salons in New York City, employing 10,000 technicians. This number accounted for 80% of the total of NYC nail salons. In 2013, it accounted for 70%, with about 30,000 Korean technicians employed.

According to the Korean-American Nail Salon Association of New York (KANSA), as of January 2020, there are about 2,000 Korean nail salons in New York and 1,400 in New Jersey. As competition between nail salons has intensified as Chinese, Vietnamese, and South Americans enter the nail salon industry, the Korean salons have evolved n by introducing not only manicure, pedicure and nail art, but also facial skin care, massage and waxing spas as a luxury and differentiation strategy. 

In May 2015, The New York Times reported in-depth on the exploitation of labor in New York nail salons run by Koreans in “The Price of Nice Nails, Hidden in Glittering Manicures”. Meanwhile, director Joy Ally directed the short film “Joy Joy Nail” (2017), which tells the story of a Korean nail salon in New York.

https://jinsoon.com

Jin Soon Natural Hand-Foot Spa in the West Village of Manhattan, which is run by Jin Soon Choi, has become one of the best salons in New York with advanced strategies, technology and services. Jin Soon Spa has become a favorite destination for celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Taylor Swift, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez. Jinsoon Choi, who moved to the United States in 1991, learned nail skills and opened a small salon in the East Village in 1999. 

Choi, whom the New York Times Magazine called Nail Guru, also had the sophisticated and meticulous hand techniques and sensibility unique to Koreans, making her the best nail artist in New York. As hand & foot treatments, she offers Essence of Soul / The Balm of Purity / Summer Oasis / Breath of Milk and Honey / Magic Clay Slipper / Spirit of the Beehive. Now she operates four branches of Jin Soon Spa in New York City.