Abacus
Named suanpan, meaning "calculating panel," the abacus is the most important calculating instrument in China. It has a long history tracing back as early as the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D) But perhaps it did not come to general use until early Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368 A.D.) It consists of beads strung on rods set in a frame, all made of wood. Nowadays plastic, steel, and brass are common. The upper beads each stand for five, while the lower beads each stand for one. Each rod stands for a digit. Most abacuses have an indicator to show which rod is used as the basic digit. The abacus is still widely used in China and competitions for its use are held regularly.
Di: Chinese Transverse Flute
The bamboo flute with five holes made its appearance during the Zhou Dynasty (1027-256 B.C.). There are three kinds of flute: hengdi (transverse flute), shudi (end-blown flute), and xiao (longer end-blown flute, also played from one end). The first two produce high sonorous music while xiao makes slow and low pitched tones. Beside bamboo, wood, iron, jade, stone and ivory are also used to make flutes. Flutes with a resonator hole are recent innnovations to produce desired musical quality. Among minority nationalities there are other kind of flutes characteristic of their individual cultures.
Chopsticks
Also called kuaizi in Chinese, chopsticks are used by most people in China to bring food to their mouth at meals. Nearly all people use their right hands to handle them and many parents would force their kids to change if they tried to use their left hands. One reason for this is that it would be an inconvenience to their right-handed neighbor to the left. Research indicates that using chopsticks involves more than 30 joints and 50 muscles moving in perfect coordination. Most chopsticks are made of bamboo, but wood, steel, ivory, aluminum, brass, silver, and even gold are also used. There are certain etiquettes in using them. The most common error made by outsiders at a Chinese dinner table is to use chopticks to knock on bowls and plates.
