Chinatown (唐人街) is the name of an area (地区) in the middle of London. It is a large Chinese community (社区) with a lot of Chinese restaurants, Chinese supermarkets and shops.

In the 1950s, it was a poor area and everything was very cheap. At the same time, the world rice market became bad and thousands of farm workers in Hong Kong lost their jobs. They began going to London to look for work. They found jobs in the restaurants in this area.

These restaurant workers often worked for17 hours a day and had no time to learn English. As more Chinese arrived, more shops and businesses grew up. Women came to join their husbands and children came to join their fathers. The community grew, and Chinatown was born.   

In the 1970s and 1980s, British-born Chinese started to have a better education (教育) and this brought economic (经济的) success to the area. Many families moved out of Chinatown, and there was more space for businesses. Chinatown soon became a popular place for tourists (游客).

Now everyone knows about London’s Chinatown. During the Chinese New Year, the streets are seen with flags and thousands of Chinese into the streets. For most time of the year, though, Londoners and tourists go there mainly for the food in the Chinese restaurants. The best restaurants are the ones where the Chinese eat.   

As we all know, the "rice bowl" culture of China has influenced some Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam since we started to use chopsticks while eating food.

Chopsticks are usually two long thin pieces of wood or bamboo. They can also be made of plastic, animal bone or metal. The most important thing is that chopsticks are a great invention in China.

Five thousand years ago people usually cooked their food in large pots, using twigs（小树枝）to remove it. As the population grew, people began cutting food into small pieces. Food in small pieces could be eaten easily with twigs by people. And twigs were gradually changed into chopsticks.

Some people think that the famous scholar Confucius living from about 551 BC to 479 BC pushed the development of chopsticks. Confucius believed that using chopsticks instead of knives would remind people to stay away from killing and violence at table.

We enjoy our delicious food with our family members or friends while feeling the peaceful and people-loving world by using chopsticks at table anytime.

Curry around the world “Curry” is the English word used to describe meat or vegetables in a spicy, usually served with rice. It is believed that the word “Curry” comes from the Tamil word “kari”.

Curries have been very popular dishes in many Asian countries throughout history. Although curry is believed to come originally from India, it has been eaten in many other Asian countries—for thousands of years.

Today, curries are eaten all over the world. This tasty, spicy dish was brought to the West by British people from India in the 17th century.

What we call curry today is an international dish that is well known around the world. Over time and distance, the flavours of dishes change so that the people eating the dish will like it. For example, the most popular curry in restaurants in the UK is called chicken tikka masala. Many British people think this is an Indian dish. However, it is really a dish created by restaurants in the UK and is not a traditional Asian dish at all.

Today curry is loved by people all over the world, unless, of course they don’t like spicy food.