The tou’s greatest power is to save those eating from any knife work. Table knives are viewed as unnecessary and also slightly disgusting in China. To cut food at the table is regarded as a form of butchery. Once the tou has done its work, all the eater has to do is pick up the perfectly uniform morsels using chopsticks. The tou and the chopsticks work in perfect symbiosis: one chops, the other serves.
