SINGAPORE — Living in Singapore, one might be familiar with the rules of “chope-ing”.

This act of reserving seats at crowded hawker centres, coffee shops or other public spaces with tissue packets, umbrellas, office pass or other items are a common sight across the island.

But can “chope” culture go a little too far?

Some students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) seem to think so, after a TikTok video revealed how some of their peers hog seats in the library by leaving personal items such as snacks, laptops and even a computer monitor overnight.

In a 13-second clip posted by TikTok user “cataddict2001”, several study desks in the library can be seen littered with items in an attempt to “chope” them.

One table was reserved with just a water bottle, a few pieces of paper and a pen. Others had school bags, jackets and plastic bags of food on them.

Some of the students even left their electronic devices such as tablets and laptops on the tables unattended.

In the most extreme example, a student seemed to have set up an entire workstation, complete with a monitor. 

“Cataddict2001” claimed in her caption that some of the items had been there since the week before.

The TikTok video, which was apparently filmed at Level 6 of NUS’ Central Library, has received more than 118,000 views and 5,000 likes since it was posted on April 19.

Fellow NUS students who saw the clip shared their frustrations over the familiar scene, with some calling the practice of seat-hogging “inconsiderate” and “entitled”.

One person wrote: “I swear to God I feel like throwing everything away, especially that monitor.”

Some agreed that they would simply remove the items and proceed to use the space if the owner failed to show up after a few minutes.

Others questioned if library staff members were taking steps to handle the problem.

Addressing these concerns, university librarian Natalie Pang from NUS told national daily The Straits Times that the institution has begun imposing hourly checks in the school's libraries between 8.30am and 6pm to discourage seat-hogging.

"Bookmarks are first placed on unattended items to alert the owners, and library staff will remove these items if they continue to be left unattended during the next round of checks."

The university's libraries are open 24 hours a day from April 3 through May 5 this year, which is examination season.

Dr Pang added that all unattended belongings left overnight in the libraries during this period will be removed at 8.30am the next day.

'CHOPE-ING' NOT UNIQUE TO SINGAPORE

“Chope” culture is not unique to only Singapore.

In August last year, a Japanese content creator demonstrated a similar culture of "chope-ing" seats using personal belongings in Japan.

In the viral TikTok video, 24-year-old Matcha Samurai roamed around a food court pointing to items such as shopping bags, an umbrella and even phones used to reserve a seat.

Besides Japan, TikTok users from Norway, South Korea and United Arab Emirates chimed in to add that they, too, have a culture of “chope-ing”, though they use different terms to describe the act.