The trend of reusing secondhand goods is picking up in the country, He Qi reports in Shanghai.

Since summer, 26-year-old Shanghai resident Chen Jiaorong has been walking along Julu Road in Shanghai's downtown area once or twice a week, looking around and picking up "garbage".

After her action was noticed online, she was described by others as a "stooper".While seemingly affected by a culture of collecting abandoned items in some foreign countries, Chen has her own approach -she picks used goods to help find suitable new owners for some items and decorates her rented apartment with others.

Abandoned furniture, mattresses, tableware, electric scooters, clothing and decorations make the list of Chen's "collection".When she spots such unused goods, she puts a pair of eyeball-shaped stickers on them before publishing notes on her social media accounts, and guiding others to pick them up from the streets.

Chen says usually someone comes to collect within a few hours of her posting about them, because the goods are removed as trash after cleaners start to work on the roads.

"I've seen videos of garbage disposal, like sofas that are taken to sites and smashed into pieces. I've thought, 'What a pity!'" said Chen, who graduated from University College London.

"I imagine these abandoned goods on the roadside as 'living creatures', which have vitality but are not being fully used. They wait for someone to take them. I feel sorry for those goods, so I put the stickers on them," Chen added.

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.

Chen said she realized that it was difficult to pick up spare food in Shanghai or in other Chinese cities, but she became curious about picking up "useful garbage" from the roads.

On the night of June 28, Chen and her roommate started "stooping". They found nothing at first, but more idle goods showed up later in the night. Besides finding a table and a scooter, they saw a cabinet and a folding bed.

"Many passersby stopped and considered taking them home, including us," said Chen, who gave up later since they were unable to carry the goods home by themselves.

But the experience made Chen realize that there might be people who really need such abandoned items and are willing to take them home. Therefore, she posted her first blog about the Vespa on Xiaohongshu, which helped to find a new home for it and another item within a day.

"At that time, I was not sure if people would accept 'stooping' or had prejudices against picking up garbage. But the result surprised me, the younger generations like it and started to join me," Chen said.

'Healing process'

About 90 percent of objects in Chen's daily life come from "stooping" or are secondhand. She has found many useful goods for her home, such as mattresses, baskets and even Christmas trees. But what she likes the most is tableware.

"My only two bowls were broken during the lockdown, which led me to focus on finding bowls and pans when 'stooping'. I picked up all kinds of beautiful tableware from various places to be used for a long time," she said.

Chen added that her expenses now are only rent and meals. "I can often pick up items (from the street) instead of buying so I can save 50 to 60 percent of my monthly salary."

"'Stooping' is a healing process for me. I enjoy the scenery along a road, and that helps to manage my emotions. Also, I feel happy when I can pick something up," Chen said.

The first time she realized that sense of joy was when she found a fire hydrant that was left from the concession period but well-preserved on a roadside. "The act of 'stooping' gets you to notice things that you would not notice otherwise, and these things are a part of the beauty of a city."

In addition to enjoying a "stooping" lifestyle, Chen had another initial intention. "I want to do something that was niche and could only happen in Shanghai, proving that the city is very interesting.

"Some friends told me that they don't like Shanghai anymore and would leave after the lockdown was lifted. But because I like Shanghai so much, I wanted to attract more young people back through doing meaningful things."

With more people taking part in "stooping", Chen's groups on Xiaohongshu have expanded to five, with 500 people per group. She has also set up WeChat groups in 16 districts across the city, so people can share information on their used goods or provide "stooping" resources.

Chen said "stoopers" in Shanghai seldom work together. They simply take the items they need or share on related online groups. Believing that valuable items can be found along any road in the city, Chen has suggested that "stoopers" pay attention to spots under trees, garbage-collection sites and trash bins.

She said she now only picks up unused goods and posts about them, as they are easy to clean up and use.

Growing industry

The lifestyle of "stooping" also relates to recycling and sustainable development.

The social media platform Xiaohongshu released its 2023 "life-trends" report in December. The number of notes related to the circulation of idle goods in 2022 increased by 814 percent year-on-year, a major trend. Instead of buying useless things, people are shifting to secondhand goods and replacing underused or unused objects.

According to the 2021 China Idle Goods Trade Carbon Emission Reduction Report, jointly issued by Tsinghua University and other institutions, trading in idle goods covers almost all kinds of consumer goods, and the market size is estimated to reach 3 trillion yuan ($443 billion) by 2025.