Celebrating the Lunar New Year - A Short History of the GLOBAL Chinese Chopper
Starting on the 17th of February 2026, the Lunar New Year celebrations begin! This 15 day celebration brings in the turn of the lunar calendar for East Asian cultures including those in China, Vietnam and Japan. In the Chinese zodiac, 2026 is the year of the Horse, known for its dynamic energy and sometimes viewed as a year of optimism and opportunity.
And in that spirit, lets explore how GLOBAL can help you seize new cooking opportunities this Lunar New Year with our Chinese Chopper! But first, a history on the development of such a dynamic cooking tool:
Sometimes referred to as the caidao (菜刀, literally "vegetable knife"), the Chinese Chopper helps define Eastern cooking traditions due to its versatility in the kitchen as a single, rectangular blade. The earliest known trace of cooking knives dates back (approx.) 4,500 years to the Longshan culture where early tools were most likely fashioned from stone, before evolving to bronze and iron during the Zhou Dynasty (1045-256 BCE).
By (approx.) 500 BCE, cheaper cast iron was introduced as a helpful material for such tools with large blades making them easier to fashion, therefore becoming widely popular in Chinese cultures as the all-rounder food prepping knife.
Although a larger, wider blade, the slightly pointed tip helps to cut food into small, uniform pieces, giving popularity to dishes such as stir fries. This distinguishes it from its English counterpart, the cleaver, which isn’t known for precision work - think more meat and bones, less vegetable prep!
This precision prepping from the caidao into small bite-sized pieces means that traditionally knives are kept in the kitchen and never brought to the table. This practice gave rise to the use of chopsticks!
Today, in Chinese culture, mastering the techniques to use the caidao is considered the first skill of a Chinese chef, providing a range of skills from julienning vegetables to crushing garlic.
And at GLOBAL we want to continue these traditions with our Chinese Chopping Knife.
Crafted from GLOBAL’s famous Cromova 18, the blades are sharpened to the perfect 15 degree angle. The large rectangular blade is available in 17.5cm or 20cm for dynamic cooking whether you’re a beginner or a pro. Each has a hollow, sand filled handle creating the perfect balance as a counterweight to the choppers larger blade.
Whether you’re prepping the perfect Lunar New Year feast, or simply want an all-rounder knife in the kitchen, history tells us this dynamic chopper is the one for you! After all, it is the year of the Horse, maybe its time to embrace new opportunities…!