While many non-Chinese people in Singapore are competent users of chopsticks, even Singaporean Chinese people seldom use chopsticks when they are having casual rice meals. Chopsticks are almost exclusively used for noodles and steamboat. Spoons are more often used for rice unless you are dining in a classy Chinese restaurant.
It should be noted that in China, even casual rice meals are eaten with chopsticks. If you ask a Singaporean what he calls a spoon in Mandarin, he will invariably say 汤匙 for almost any kind of spoon. In China, 汤匙 is very specific and refers only to soup spoons. Ask for one and you’ll probably be given something like this – which may not be what you have in mind.
In most places in China, the kind of spoon that we eat with is not called 汤匙 . A more general term, which can refer to any kind of spoon is called chee gung in Cantonese. Most places in southern China call it 调羹 in Mandarin. If you say 调羹 , you will be understood most of the time and you might be given something like this if the waitress can guess what you’re up to. Whereas if you ask for 汤匙 which is very specific, you are asking for something like the one above.
But there is yet another variation. A northern Chinese guy once went on a holiday in the south. He wrote on social media that when he asked the waitress for a 勺子 to scoop some steamed egg off a bowl, the waitress handed him something like this.
When he described what he actually wanted the spoon for, the waitress told him that a small spoon for bringing food to your mouth is called 调羹 . To the southerner, 勺子 is a large scoop. In the north, that large scoop above would be called a 汤 勺 . A small spoon is called 勺 儿 in Beijing and 勺子 in other parts like Shandong. All my Shandong friends call the disposable spoon that comes with nasi lemak 勺子 . To avoid misunderstanding in China, one should be familiar with 调羹 and 勺子 .