Chopsticks provide an entrée to Chinese culture

After five minutes of practice, my students at the University of Iowa joined their first ever "chopsticks contest".

As my teaching assistant, Huang Guannan, kept the time with her cell phone, the four members of the first group ran around the desk, trying to transfer as many wadded up tissue-paper balls as possible from one plate to another. The sticks kept falling, but they managed a dozen.

The second group of five pushed against one another at first but soon gained order. The final group, comprising three tall young men, stood still, reaching toward the plate with their arms, to which I shouted: "Stop! This is unfair to the others!"