{"id":94483,"date":"2026-10-20T19:58:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T11:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94483"},"modified":"2026-10-20T19:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T11:58:18","slug":"behind-the-carton-the-story-of-the-classic-us-chinese-takeaway-container","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94483","title":{"rendered":"Behind the carton: the story of the classic US Chinese takeaway container"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/10\/20\/2bda4bc3-3d6c-4419-bee8-af083ccd5d36_93a5b2ba.jpg?itok=CZ5l-1yS&amp;v=1792486774\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It is an icon, that small white receptacle made from a single piece of cardboard folded into a trapezoid-shaped box. Sometimes there is a wire handle, sometimes a bright red graphic of a Chinese-style pagoda on the side. And inside, deliciousness.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Chinese takeaway container \u2013 at least, as it is commonly seen in the United States \u2013 is actually about as American as it gets, with its mix of ingenuity, immigrant cultures becoming home-grown staples, and the desire for convenience (also known as sitting at home in your pyjamas).<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The idea of what is essentially a paper bucket dates back to 1894, when inventor Frederick Weeks Wilcox was granted a patent for what he called \u201ca new and useful improvement\u201d for pails used to carry oysters.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A single piece of material would be folded in such a way that it would have structural stability and a lid, while limiting the ways it could leak.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/food-drink\/article\/3371450\/behind-carton-story-classic-us-chinese-takeaway-container\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is an icon, that small white receptacle made from a single piece of cardboard folded into a trapezoid-shaped box. Sometimes there is a wire&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[31971,107,1774,15031,1199,14102],"class_list":["post-94483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-carton","tag-chinese","tag-classic","tag-container","tag-story","tag-takeaway","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}