'Treasure' hunt

New concept

The word "stoop" means to bend forward, but in the United States, for example, it also refers to a platform or entrance stairway to a house. The term "stooper" was coined in the US after a lot of people put their used or underused belongings in front of their doorsteps to be taken away for free by those in need. Later, "stooping" was extended to loosely mean "picking up discarded items and recycling them."

The term "stooping" first appeared online when two young New Yorkers posted discarded objects they found on the streets on Instagram. Named "Stooping NYC", the account made 15,000 posts and gained over 424,000 followers within three years. After getting more attention, similar accounts appeared from different countries.

Many believe that Chen is one of the first people to introduce the concept in China. On July 1, Chinese netizens saw a rare "stooping" post, which Chen called "Mikiko in Shanghai" on social media platform Xiaohongshu, posting her first "stooping" note -an abandoned Vespa found by the roadside.

So far, she has posted more than 400"stooping" notes, sharing information about the abandoned goods she found in street corners in downtown area over the past six months. Her account now has over 35,000 followers.

Chen explained that the idea of becoming a "stooper" started with her obsession with overseas videos in which she saw people picking up spare or unwanted food to eat. Chen then went to a bakery on Nanjing West Road in June to see if there was any unsold food that needed to be disposed of.

"The lockdown (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) had just been lifted and I wanted to know how they would deal with excess bread. It turned out that domestic bakeries would not throw the bread, instead, the staff would take away the leftovers," Chen said.