Chinese etiquette

• Dishes are usually prepared in such a way that each piece is bite-sized so if the item is too small or too big to be picked up by the chopsticks, then it is not designed to be eaten with the chopsticks.
• Chinese traditionally eat rice from a bowl. The rice bowl is raised to the mouth and the rice is shoveled into the mouth using the chopsticks. (Note that this Chinese etiquette is the exact opposite from the Japanese custom.) If Chinese rice is served on a plate, as is more common in the West, it is acceptable and more practical to eat it with a fork or spoon. It is quite tedious to try to pick up the rice, grain by grain, but some people will attempt to do this if they do not know that they are not expected to utilise the chopsticks in this manner.
• Do not stand chopsticks in a bowl of rice or anything else because the act resembles part of a traditional funeral rite.
• For the sake of hygiene, when obtaining food from the serving dish, the chopsticks may be inverted to the other ends to pick up the food.
  

Japanese etiquette

• In general, chopsticks should be used for eating and no other purpose. Do not point or gesture with chopsticks, and do not bang them on an object to catch the attention of someone or use them like drumsticks.
• Do not dig around in dishes for choice bits of food. Eat from the top and choose what is to be eaten before reaching with chopsticks (do not hover around or poke looking for special ingredients).
• Never stab or pierce food with chopsticks.
• Never stand chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice (or anything else, for that matter, but rice especially because the act resembles part of a funeral rite)
• Do not move dishes around with chopsticks.
• Do not lick or suck the ends of chopsticks.
• Do not let food drop off ends of chopsticks.
• Do not shovel food into your mouth with chopsticks. Soup bowls, but no other dishes or bowls are brought to the mouth in Japan. While the rice bowl is raised when eating, it is not brought to the mouth.
• Never touch food in a common dish with the pointed (eating) end of chopsticks, for hygienic reasons. Use the blunt end to transfer food from a common dish to your own plate or bowl (never your mouth).
• Never use chopsticks to transfer something to someone else's chopsticks or someone else's plate or bowl.
• Place pointed ends of the chopsticks on a chopstick rest when chopsticks are not being used.
• For the sake of hygiene, when obtaining food from the serving dish, the chopsticks may be inverted to the other ends to pick up the food.

Agora só tenho que aprender a segurar os pauzinhos.