'Human tissue paper': Chope parking lot by standing in it
If a vehicle was reversing towards you, would you dodge or stand your ground? This woman decided the cost outweighed the risks and stood firm in a parking lot, 'chope-ing' it as a car tried to reverse into the lot, as seen in a video uploaded to Roads.sg yesterday (July 10).
The video, which was filmed outside Hotel 81 at Jiak Chuan Road, Chinatown, shows a woman dressed in black standing in a parking lot, eyeing cars around. A black multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) can then be seen backing up towards the lot.
As it becomes apparent that the MPV was trying to take up the lot she was standing in, the woman goes towards the moving vehicle instead of avoiding it. She then boldly raps her knuckles against the rear of the vehicle, warning the driver.
Chope: To reserve a seat, table or queue spot with personal items
People chope queue spots with items at Bishan East food rescue event
On Friday (23 Aug), the Facebook page for the Bishan community group, Bishan East Zone 1 Residents’ Network (RN), posted about an incident of people chope-ing queue spots with items at a food rescue event instead of physically queueing. The event took place at the Bishan East Zone 1 Green Hub, located at Block 112 Bishan Street 12. Food rescues are community events where unwanted food collected by volunteers is redistributed to residents. This serves to both reduce food wastage and give food to those who need it.
According to their Facebook page, the Bishan East Zone 1 RN food rescue events are bring-your-own-bag and first-come-first-served. No reservations were allowed. The 23 Aug food rescue event had been a success, with “overwhelming support” from residents, many of whom got up early to queue for the event. “We appreciate the early bird zeal in queuing up for restocks in good orderliness & neighbourliness,” the Facebook post said. However, in the same Facebook post, the Bishan East Zone 1 Green Hub Food Rescue Team also noted that people were chope-ing spaces in the queue like they were at a hawker centre.
To illustrate what had happened, they posted two photos. The first one showed a line of people queuing physically; this post was accompanied by a smiley face emoji sticker. On the other hand, second photo showed a queue of inanimate objects, mostly plastic bags, held down by stones from the nearby community garden. This one featured a shocked emoji sticker instead. The team acknowledged that the chope-ing was creative but prohibited. “All items found lying on the floor will be deemed as litter and cleared or confiscated,” the post warned. Coincidentally, the queue also started right next to a pillar with a “no littering” sign plastered on it.
Can they do that? Drivers use cones, bins and clothes rack to 'chope' parking spaces
Two Stompers alerted Stomp to incidents of drivers using physical items to 'chope' parking lots at two locations in Singapore. Firstly, a Stomper sent a photo showing an orange cone placed in front of an empty parking lot at Ubi Avenue 1.
He came across the sight at 8.30am this morning (Jan 18) and said that he has been seeing this for more than three months. In a telephone interview and WhatApp message, the Stomper said that the lot was reserved by a BMW driver who owned a shop nearby. The parking lot was demarcated by white markers, meaning that it was meant for public use. The driver however claimed that the lot is allocated for him and will park his vehicle there from 8am to 4.30pm, according to the Stomper.
Stomper Chan also witnessed a similar occurrence yesterday (Jan 17) at around 1pm along Cheow Keng Road. In a video he sent, dustbins were used to 'chope' spaces in between several parked cars along the road. Towards the end of the video, there was even a clothes hanger that was used to reserve a parking space.
Chair, rubbish bin used to chope parking space in Bedok private estate: 'Inconsiderate and illegal'
A resident in a Bedok private estate is frustrated by a neighbour who started placing items on the road to reserve a parking space this month.
Stomper JL said he has reported the issue to the authorities a few times to no avail. "I have submitted multiple case reports via the OneService app to report the inconsiderate and illegal use of rubbish bins and chairs to 'reserve' parking space on a public road at Jalan Chempaka Kuning. "Every time, the reply was 'our warden has taken action, et cetera'. So far, nothing has been done."
He pointed out: "Under Section 32A of the Street Works Act, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is empowered to enforce against any person(s) for placing articles or things on public streets, five-footways and private foot-ways which may cause obstruction and/or inconvenience to the passage of the public." Asked if he had spoken to the neighbour, the Stomper said: "The neighbour refused to move the bin and chair despite counselling."
What is this thing used to chope parking space in Sembawang private estate?
We have seen rubbish bins and traffic cones – even the occasional human being – used to reserve a parking space.
Then there is... this thing. A Stomper shared photos of a cage-like object on the side of the road behind a white Mercedes-Benz parked at Jalan Salang in Sembawang.
"Can you book parking along a public road? Very inconsiderate behaviour," said the Stomper. Private estate residents using various items to "chope" parking space has been an ongoing issue in Singapore.
Landed property owners resigned to parking situation, urge people to be considerate
Vehicles parked legally along Watten Drive in Bukit Timah. (Photo: CNA/Grace Yeoh)
The tussle for turf within landed housing estates has motorists defending their right to park on public roads after an incident in March reignited discussion on the evergreen issue. After local host Jade Seah received a note from a resident when she parked along a public road inside a landed estate, she took to social media on Mar 21 to air her frustration. The note from the resident read: “Please do not park here. Let those who stay here, park here. Thank you.”
In response, she wrote in her Instagram Stories: “You do not own the land outside your house. This is public property that anyone is at liberty to park at.” This led to a contributor to the STOMP website highlighting similar encounters at the Meragi Close estate. Residents from the estate in Simei are said to have left notes on cars that don’t belong to residents or guests of residents. One such note posted on the website told motorists to “park at your HDB car park”, as Meragi Close is “short of parking space for residents and guests of residents”.
Vehicles are allowed to park on both sides of the road at private estates, as long as there are no lines on either side of the road and the lane divider is a single non-continuous white line. But automotive platform motorist.sg advises drivers to park their vehicles “in a manner” that does not block any entrances and the flow of traffic.
Drivers still use rubbish bins to "chope" public parking lots along Cheow Keng Rd
We know of people who use tissue papers to chope or reserve seats to eat in restaurants but did you know there are drivers who use rubbish bins to reserve parking lots for their vehicles?
Unsurprisingly, this behaviour can frustrate other road users. Stomper Ben came across this practice being carried out along Cheow Keng Road on Aug 25.
"Can chope parking lots like that, meh?" he asked. Ben told Stomp that the road is a "notorious" area where drivers chope lots.
Bukit Timah private estate residents allegedly buy their own traffic cones to 'chope' parking space
Using a recycling bin to "chope" a parking space in front of your landed home?
Been there, done that. Residents of the Hoover Park private estate in Bukit Timah have levelled up by allegedly buying their own traffic cones to do the "choping".
Stomper Ng shared photos of both the bins and and cones used by homeowners to mark their territory.
'Selfish' Serangoon Gardens residents reserve parking spaces with rubbish bins -- again
It has become common practice despite complaints. Once again, rubbish bins were spotted being used to reserve parking spaces in Serangoon Gardens.
Sharing a photo of the bins, Stomper Gabriel said: "Another street of selfish residents who use rubbish bins to prevent others from parking." This time, the street is Huddington Avenue. The Stomper said that bins were not only spotted in front of these two residences. "Farther down, there were also quite a few houses with rubbish bins to prevent others from parking."
Just three streets away from Huddington Avenue is Portchester Avenue, where another Stomper had previously called out his neighbours for "choping" parking spaces with bins in September. Gabriel asked: "What will be done to address this problem?"
Serangoon Gardens residents chope parking space with dustbins
A Serangoon Gardens resident has reached his limit with his neighbours who 'chope' parking lots with rubbish bins along Portchester Avenue.
Stomper Pioneer Singaporean shared with Stomp that he has been putting up with such behaviour for "ages" and calls it "animal behaviour". Although the Stomper wishes the authorities would intervene, such issues need to be resolved using a community approach.
In response to a Stomp query on a similar incident, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said: "For such issues within the private estates, the LTA adopts a community approach towards resolving them by advising residents to ensure that their objects do not pose a safety hazard or an obstruction to other users.
We've bin doing it wrong: Westwood Crescent private residents 'chope' their parking lot with trash cans and flower pots
He happened to see a flower pot in the middle of the road and was shocked "when my friend told me that is how the private residents chope their parking lots".
According to his friend, rubbish bins are also used to secure lots.
Man blocks car with body, forces driver to give way at Tuas Checkpoint
Which would you value more: your life, or getting ahead in a traffic jam? For this man, it seems the latter was of greater importance.
A man used his body to block a vehicle, forcing the driver to give way to his accompanying driver's car at Tuas Checkpoint. A video of the incident was uploaded to Facebook platform SG Road Vigilante on Monday (Oct 9). The 53-second clip has now garnered over 120,000 views and more than 1,400 reactions on the platform. In the video, the man, a passenger of a black vehicle in the second lane, gestures at the driver in a white vehicle in the first lane.
He then firmly plants himself in front of it, preventing the white vehicle from going forward and forcing it to yield. The man then gestures at a black vehicle in the second lane, motioning for that driver to cut in line. As the driver does so, the white vehicle inches forward. However, the man refuses to budge, even leaning on the bonnet of the car. Eventually, the black vehicle successfully cuts in and the man returns to the passenger seat.
'Human but pretends to be tissue paper': Man flamed for physically chope-ing Ang Mo Kio parking lot
Trying to find an empty lot in a crowded car park can be extremely frustrating. And it gets doubly annoying when you locate one, only to find a man standing on it to 'chope' the lot. This is what one man did at the car park near Cheng San Market & Cooked Food Centre.
On Friday (March 31), a video from a car's dash cam footage was uploaded onto Facebook group Complaint Singapore. "Human but pretends to be tissue paper," read the video's caption, suggesting that the man was 'chope-ing' the parking lot like how one uses an item to reserve a table in a hawker centre. In the clip, the male passenger of another car was seen alighting from the vehicle to look for an empty parking lot.
He eventually found one near the entrance of the hawker centre and gestured to the driver of his car to come over. The man then walked over to the parking lot and stood there in an attempt to reserve the lot with his body. In response, the driver whose dashcam had recorded the incident honked at him, and the latter turned around. The man then gestured towards his car again and then signalled that he was reserving the parking lot. After which, he waved at his car again to urge it to come over.
'Are you serious?' Driver in disbelief after man stands in Sixth Avenue parking lot to chope space
It's frustrating enough not to be able to find a parking lot. Imagine how this one driver felt when he did find one, only to realise that it had been 'choped'. The irked driver uploaded his dash cam footage to TikTok with the username Joepele3 on Wednesday (March 22), tagging the location as Sixth Avenue.
"Using body to chope parking," he wrote. In the video, he tries to reverse into a parking lot at the side of the road where a man dressed in a red polo T-shirt is standing, casually sipping a beverage. He did not budge even as the driver was reversing the vehicle into him.
When the driver tries to tell him to move out of the way, the man casually responds: "I'm chope-ing the lot for my friend, he's right there," while gesturing toward a silver car behind him. In utter disbelief, Joepele3 can be heard muttering in the video: "Are you serious? My goodness!" He then gets back into the car and drives off, in search of another lot.
Woman plants herself stubbornly in MBS parking lot to 'chope' it, another driver reverses car in anyway
Looking for an empty parking lot at a popular shopping mall can be a particularly excruciating experience. But one couple who spotted an empty lot at the Marina Bay Sands carpark thought of a clever parking hack to 'chope' – local slang for reserving a table or seat at an eatery – it by sending a woman to quickly stand at that lot while her partner circled back for it. Unfortunately for them, that plan backfired as a fellow road user decided that he was having none of her antics and proceeded to reverse into that very lot anyway, ignoring the woman who planted herself there.
The incident occurred last Sunday (May 15) at around 3.12pm. A roughly two-minute clip was captured on the driver's dashcam and posted on the SG Road Vigilante's Facebook page. The post amassed 77,000 views and 310 comments at the time of writing. From the video, the woman in yellow, could be seen casually standing in the empty parking lot. While a red sedan passed up the chance to park at the said lot, the dashcam driver decided he was not going to stand for her nonsense.
This driver slowly reversed his car in as the woman continuously knocked on the car, in an attempt to stop him from parking. She walked towards the driver's seat, telling the driver she had already 'chope' the parking lot. "I insisted that we should get the security but she said she will report it to the police, she proceeds to walk away and said 'I will see you next week'," said the driver in the caption.
2 women at busy Geylang carpark stand in parking lot to reserve space, refuse to budge
While reserving a table with a packet of tissue may be part of the culture in Singapore, hogging a parking spot by planting yourself firmly on it is not. In a video uploaded to SgfollowsAll's Instagram today (April 6), two women were seen standing in a parking lot near Block 114 Geylang Lor 3, preventing other drivers from parking.
As a long line of cars starts to form before the parking lot, a grey sedan turns into the area and one of the women makes eye contact with the driver, pointing at the parking lot beneath her. One man who was recording the two women's antics can be heard complaining, "Two people standing in the lot, holding up the whole traffic." One netizen compared them to "the kind of people who take everything from the hotel room". Other netizens came up with solutions for the two women with one jokingly saying that "parking lot also can chope using tissue paper auntie, no need stand there." However, some netizens accused the driver of a black van, presumably the one taking the video, for holding up the traffic.
This isn't the first time that hogging of parking lots have become the subject of ire and controversy.
In 2019, alleged passengers of a Singaporean BMW vehicle drew flak from locals as they tried to reserve a parking lot in Malaysia by standing in them. In a more recent incident in 2021, a newbie motorcyclist was stunned when he received a note saying that the parking lot he had chosen to park in already had "permanent owners".
'Dangerous' car owner? Driver called out for using danger sign to chope Pasir Ris HDB parking lot
One driver used a 'danger' sign to reserve a parking lot in Pasir Ris.
Facebook/SGRV Admin
If you've ever wanted a private parking lot to yourself, this driver has a solution — but we wouldn't recommend it unless you wish to earn the ire of fellow motorists. In a post to the SGRV Admin Facebook group today (Jan 21), one disgruntled Facebook user shared images of a driver using a 'danger, keep out' sign to chope a parking lot within an HDB estate in Pasir Ris.
"Driver used 'danger' sign from nearby construction works to chope his own private parking lot," the contributor wrote. "Very self-entitled, I saw him putting the sign when he left. In the morning when I left, I saw his car back in the lot." The contributor shared that the lot, which is located at Pasir Ris Street 51, block 527D, was empty at about 12.05am on Jan 11. However, there was a sign blocking the lot. In another image, the lot is taken up by a black MPV, believed to be the driver's vehicle, while the sign is placed off to the right of the picture. "Next time just remove the sign," one user commented on the Facebook post.
Many other users offered the same advice, with some also going a step further to suggest that the contributor hide the sign elsewhere so that the driver can't use it again. One other netizen also felt that a bit of malicious compliance was in order."Mo ve the construction debris there since it's marked as 'danger'," wrote the user, tongue-in-cheek.
Jade Seah gets note for parking in private estate, calls out 'self-entitled' landed home owners
Seah wrote: “I found this placed on the windshield of my car, which I had taken care to park legally along a road with no line markings, and not obstructing anyone’s front gate nor traffic.” “When you own landed property, you own the land you paid for. That usually includes your house; and some people choose to have swimming pools, gardens and parking spaces. You do not own the land outside your house. That is public property that anyone is at liberty to park at; and that includes vans, lorries, motorbikes and other cars,” she added.
“With all due respect though, sir/madam (and also to all other home owners who think you have priority or rights to the space in front of your house), I’m here to educate you that that is public space, and you have neither rights nor priority to make this request.”
Putting Packets of Tissue to “Chope” Seats
Chope, This Seat Mine: The Immutable Laws Of Singapore’s Hawker Centers
I have witnessed overly-cultured and genteel visitors from strange lands descend onto our popular hawker centre (where they serve flavors that define the country’s culinary culture), at mad peak hour moments and wonder, “Ahem, so is someone going to show us to a table for 4?” Not going to happen ma’am.
The technique of securing seats at those feeding frenzy hours had long ago been reduced and translated to a fine art form called “chope.” The first thing chope master artists do is to hone in on an empty table and mark their turf — by putting the cheapest or most useless personal item they have on them, usually a half used tissue pack, a cheap ball point pen or even a worthless bargain stall umbrella on the seat. That, in mod-Singapore street food speak, means “lay off, she’s taken,” or in local vernacular called Singlish “Chope, this seat mine” (a local English slang, sans the polite grammar and attitude the British left us with).
These are the 10 immutable laws of using Singapore’s hawker centres:
- Firstly, scour the hawker centre for empty tables or chairs
- Chope also an extra seat for your bags
- Say your order in slow but clear broken English (loose all the polite grammar) for best effect
- If you are wearing white tops that need to stay clean, stay away from curries, thick soups and dark sauces
- Choose who you want to share a table with
- Ordering drinks from the beverage auntie or uncle
- When seated, wipe the edge of table directly in front of you with wet tissues
- If it’s not a self-service stall and they offer to bring the food to your table, sit close to them
- Transfer the leftover crockery of your vacated table to another, so the cleaner will attend to your table faster
- If you are clueless as to what to order, just follow the queues
Couple in "Chope" table incident arrested
Chow Chuin Yee (2nd from left) and Tay Puay Leng were charged for causing a public nuisance. (Foto: Gayathiri Chandramohan)
The couple who got into an ugly spat with an elderly man at a hawker centre in Toa Payoh was handed a S$2,700 fine on Friday (Aug 11).
Chow Chuin Yee, 46, was fined S$1,500 for using criminal force on 76-yr-old Ng Ai Hua, by using his upper body to forcefully barge into Mr Ng.
Chow’s partner, Tay Puay Leng, 39, was fined S$1,200 for using abusive words on Mr Ng with the intent to cause alarm.
The Origin of the Word “Chope”
The Singlish phrase ‘chope’ needs a dedicated post. Although everyone goes on about tissue paper packets in food courts and coffee shops, the word ‘chope’ has an interesting history.
The Singlish word ‘chope’ (Slang for reserving a seat) was derived from chop; to leave a mark. The word ‘chop’ was originally from the Malay word cap, which is from the Hindi word छाप ćhāp (stamp).
‘Chop’ and ‘chope’ are sometimes sounded the same because of the blending of the vowel sounds. Normally when a silent ‘e’ occurs at the end of a word, it converts a vowel to is ‘long’ equivalent.
In Singapore, these two sounds are blended into one sound, and the diphthong is kept short for ‘oh’.
read more
The Singlish phrase ‘chope’ needs a dedicated post. Although everyone goes on about tissue paper packets in food courts and coffee shops, the word ‘chope’ has an interesting history.
The Singlish word ‘chope’ (Slang for reserving a seat) was derived from chop; to leave a mark. The word ‘chop’ was originally from the Malay word cap, which is from the Hindi word छाप ćhāp (stamp).
‘Chop’ and ‘chope’ are sometimes sounded the same because of the blending of the vowel sounds. Normally when a silent ‘e’ occurs at the end of a word, it converts a vowel to is ‘long’ equivalent.
In Singapore, these two sounds are blended into one sound, and the diphthong is kept short for ‘oh’.
read more
Bickering over a Reserved MRT seat
A video of a woman and an auntie engaged in an altercation over an MRT reserved seat has been circulating on Facebook.
The video, shared on Sure Boh Singapore’s Facebook page, shows a woman sitting on the reserved seat on board a MRT train. An auntie in turquoise can be seen standing in front of her. The woman then told the auntie:
A video of a woman and an auntie engaged in an altercation over an MRT reserved seat has been circulating on Facebook.
The video, shared on Sure Boh Singapore’s Facebook page, shows a woman sitting on the reserved seat on board a MRT train. An auntie in turquoise can be seen standing in front of her. The woman then told the auntie:
- “You pay, I pay.
- “I don’t think you deserve it (the seat).”
Singapore’s ‘Kiasu’ culture 惊 输
Singaporeans commonly use personal articles such as tissue packets to reserve tables in the city’s crowded food courts before purchasing a meal. The practice is considered quintessential “kiasu.” (David Pierson / Los Angeles Times)
Long before Americans discovered FOMO — the fear of missing out —Singaporeans were fixated with its more excessive forebear, kiasu.
Taken from the Chinese dialect Hokkien, kiasu translates to a fear of losing out, but encompasses any sort of competitive, stingy or selfish behavior commonly witnessed in this highflying city-state:
- If you stand in line for hours just because there’s a gift at the end, then you’re kiasu.
- If you claim a spot at a table at a busy food court with a packet of tissues while you wander off in search of grub, you’re kiasu.
- If you’re a parent who volunteers hours of your free time at a school just so your offspring has a better chance of enrolling there one day, then you’re most definitely kiasu.
It’s a survival instinct born out of Singapore’s dominant Chinese culture and deep-rooted insecurity as a blip on the map, one that’s only slightly bigger than the San Fernando Valley. Letting opportunity pass is tantamount to failure, the thinking goes. And if you do, you have no one to blame but yourself.
Singaporelang - What the Singlish?
Huat ah!
This new monthly series highlights the diverse range of stories these Singapore photographers have produced in recent years, from a quirky visualisation of Singlish, to an extensive documentary on life in Singapore’s Southern Islands. Often going beyond what mainstream news outlets produce or publish, these photo-essays add rich new layers to the visual record of changing life in Singapore.
We kick off the series with “Singaporelang — What the Singlish?”, photographer Zinkie Aw’s technicolour love letter to Singlish. So, mai tu liao, check out the photos below and see if you can suggest lagi better captions.
I think I am very Singaporean because I eat, think, breathe and speak like one, and I am self-confessed sibei kiasu with my photography.
While working on this project, I also realised that many people have the misconception that only ah bengs or ah lians or army boys use Singlish. But hey, wrong lor! The whole Singapore does!
