I designed a portable cutlery specifically for the design audiences of China, Japan and other eastern countries.
In this design brief, chopsticks and the spoon have been critically selected as the main components. The reasons being that 1, chopsticks have about a 3000-year history. Originating in ancient China, they were later adopted as cutlery to other countries in the East Asian cultural sphere.
Now chopsticks are not only very commonly used throughout China, they are also in just as regular use in Vietnam, Japan and Korea. As well as these countries, chopsticks are in common use in other countries that have many Chinese immigrants, such as Mongolia, Singapore and Malaysia etc.
My second reason is that the spoon is more convenient for eating rice, in the context of fast food. There is already a precedent for this as, in Korea, the spoon is used for rice, and chopsticks are for dishes composed of differing plates in which the noodles, vegetables, and meat are served separately. Noodles as a fast food are also very popular in China. So, the spoon could be used for soup.
