Interesting about the rice thing. I wonder if it's sorta like "double dipping" but with rice?
I haven't eaten with chopsticks in forever, but I really should try it again soon. We don't eat much Chinese food, and when we do it's usually takeout, so my opportunities have been limited.
We have a couple dozen chopsticks. I use them rarely, but my DH uses them several times a week to eat (a throwback to the semester he studied abroad in China). I am passable with them to other Americans, but according to DH "i use my chopsticks like a peasant" lol! (It's now a joke between us)
It is also true in Japan, it is impolite to stick your chopstick vertically into food especially into a bowl of rice. It is also a no no to directly pass food from your chopsticks to another. AND don't use it to point at somebody hehe.