ObservanceFriday, November 5, 2027
National Chinese Take-Out Day
- Date
- Recurs
- Every year on November 5
- Category
- Food
National Chinese Take-Out Day falls on November 5 and has no documented founder — but the object it celebrates has one of the best-documented origins in American food. The folded paper carton is a patented invention: US Patent 529,053, granted in 1894 to a Chicago man, for a pail to carry oysters. Chinese food arrived in it later, and the story of how runs through American immigration law as much as through cooking.
History
The container came first, and it had nothing to do with Chinese food. On November 13, 1894, the Patent Office granted patent 529,053, "Paper Pail," to Frederick Weeks Wilcox of Chicago — a pail folded from a single piece of heavy paper, whose fifth claim is for "an oyster pail formed from a single piece of foldable material." Folded oyster pails already existed; what Wilcox patented was a leak-resistant construction, and the document names no food but oysters. The Bloomer Brothers of New York began making the containers in 1900; that firm became Fold-Pak, which the Associated Press reports still makes most of the takeout cartons used in the United States.
Chinese restaurants in America are older than the carton. Smithsonian Magazine dates the first to 1849, when Norman Asing opened Macao and Woosung at Kearny and Commercial streets in San Francisco; the Chinese Historical Society of America credits the Canton Restaurant to the same Gold Rush year. The Library of Congress records that 20,000 of the 67,000 people who landed in California in 1852 came from China.
What turned restaurants into an industry was immigration law. The Chinese Exclusion Act, approved May 6, 1882, suspended the immigration of Chinese laborers but exempted merchants. Historian Heather Lee's account for the American Social History Project is that officials at first treated restaurant owners as laborers who could not re-enter the country, and that in 1915 they relented, conceding that Chinese restaurants were significant enterprises and granting their proprietors merchant status. Lee found the number of Chinese eateries in New York City quadrupled between 1910 and 1920; Chinese restaurants had become the largest employer of Chinese immigrants by mid-century. The exclusion acts were repealed in 1943.
Delivery is older than most people assume. The earliest restaurant delivery advertisement TIME could locate is a 1922 notice for the Kin-Chu café in Los Angeles, which called itself the only place on the West Coast making and delivering real Chinese food, hot, as late as one in the morning. The pagoda printed on the carton is much newer: the Associated Press dates that design to the 1970s.
Timeline
- 1849 — Chinese restaurants open in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Smithsonian Magazine credits Norman Asing's Macao and Woosung; the Chinese Historical Society of America credits the Canton Restaurant.
- May 6, 1882 — The Chinese Exclusion Act is approved, suspending the immigration of Chinese laborers while exempting merchants.
- November 13, 1894 — US Patent 529,053 is granted to Frederick Weeks Wilcox of Chicago for a folded "Paper Pail" — in the patent's own words, an oyster pail.
- 1915 — Immigration officials concede that Chinese restaurants are significant enterprises and extend merchant status to their proprietors.
- 1922 — The Kin-Chu café in Los Angeles advertises hot Chinese food delivered until 1 a.m., the earliest restaurant delivery advertisement TIME could locate.
- 1970s — Fold-Pak adds the pagoda design to the carton.
How to observe
Order from a single-location restaurant and read past the standard American-Chinese set on the menu. Regional menus are common and often go unadvertised in English.
Then look at the patent. US 529,053 is online, short and illustrated, and seeing the takeout box diagrammed as a vessel for shellfish is a small, strange pleasure — the shape every American recognizes, drawn in 1894 for a different dinner entirely.
The National Archives' guide to Chinese immigration records describes the exclusion-era case files: merchants' testimony and passports, partnership lists, photographs. That paperwork is the trail behind a great many American Chinese restaurants, and it is open to researchers.
Frequently asked questions
Who started National Chinese Take-Out Day?
No reliable source names a founder, an organization or a founding year. It appears to be a creation of holiday listings rather than of anyone in the restaurant business.
Why is the Chinese takeout box shaped like that?
Because it was designed to carry oysters. US Patent 529,053, granted in 1894 to Frederick Weeks Wilcox of Chicago, covers a leak-resistant pail folded from one piece of paper, and the patent's own claim language calls it an oyster pail.
Is chop suey American or Chinese?
Contested, and worth saying so. Smithsonian Magazine reports that few people agree on the dish's provenance, and that the story crediting the Chinese statesman Li Hongzhang with inventing it on his 1896 visit to the United States is a myth, since the dish was already eaten there. Writing in History Today, Alexander Lee argues it is Cantonese in origin, probably from Taishan in Guangdong. What is clearly American is the scale: the first chop suey recipe in Good Housekeeping ran in 1895.
How many Chinese restaurants are there in the United States?
No agency publishes a count. Pew Research Center, using point-of-interest data for March 2023, found 787,153 open US restaurants, that 12 percent serve Asian food, and that 39 percent of Asian restaurants are Chinese — roughly 37,000 by arithmetic, though Pew publishes no such figure.
Did Chinese restaurants invent food delivery?
Not exactly, but they were early. TIME describes Chinese restaurants as well ahead of the American delivery trend, and the oldest delivery advertisement it located is the Kin-Chu café's, from 1922.
When is National Chinese Take-Out Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | November 5 | Friday |
| 2028 | November 5 | Sunday |
| 2029 | November 5 | Monday |
| 2030 | November 5 | Tuesday |
| 2031 | November 5 | Wednesday |
Sources
- United States patent 529,053, "Paper Pail" (Frederick Weeks Wilcox of Chicago; filed February 19, 1894, granted November 13, 1894) — https://patents.google.com/patent/US529053A/en → the patent number, inventor, city, filing and grant dates; the single-blank folded construction and "fluid or partly fluid contents"; the claim for "an oyster pail formed from a single piece of foldable material"; the absence of any mention of Chinese food.
- Associated Press (Deepti Hajela), A humble oyster pail turned takeout icon: The American story of the Chinese food carton, October 16, 2026, via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution — https://www.ajc.com/news/2026/10/a-humble-oyster-pail-turned-takeout-icon-the-american-story-of-the-chinese-food-carton/ → the 1894 patent as an improvement to pails used for oysters; the Bloomer Brothers from 1900 through Riegel Paper to Fold-Pak; Fold-Pak making most US takeout containers; the pagoda design added in the 1970s.
- TIME (Emelyn Rude), What Take-Out Food Can Teach You About American History, April 14, 2016 — https://time.com/4291197/take-out-delivery-food-history/ → the Kin-Chu café's 1922 Los Angeles delivery advertisement as the earliest the author located, and its 1 a.m. promise; Chinese restaurants well ahead of the US restaurant delivery trend; oyster stew sold to take home; pollution and overfishing ending the street oyster trade.
- Smithsonian Magazine, Was Chop Suey the Greatest Culinary Joke Ever Played? — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/was-chop-suey-the-greatest-culinary-joke-ever-played-122173708/ → Norman Asing opening Macao and Woosung at Kearny and Commercial streets in 1849, described as the birthplace of the Chinese restaurant in America.
- Smithsonian Magazine, Chop Suey: An American Classic — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/chop-suey-american-classic-180964610/ → that few people agree on the dish's exact provenance; the Li Hongzhang origin story described as a myth because the dish already existed in the United States by 1896; the 1920s spread across the country.
- History Today (Alexander Lee), A History of Chop Suey — https://www.historytoday.com/archive/historians-cookbook/history-chop-suey → the argument that chop suey is of Chinese origin, probably first cooked in Taishan, Guangdong; the first chop suey recipe published in Good Housekeeping in 1895.
- Chinese Historical Society of America, The Local Food History of San Francisco Chinatown — https://chsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/the-local-food-history-of-san-francisco-chinatown.pdf → the Canton Restaurant credited as the first Chinese restaurant in North America, dated to the Gold Rush of 1849.
- Library of Congress, From Gold Rush to Golden State — https://www.loc.gov/collections/california-first-person-narratives/articles-and-essays/early-california-history/from-gold-rush-to-golden-state/ → 20,000 of the 67,000 arrivals in California in 1852 coming from China; Chinese miners creating America's first Chinatown in San Francisco around 1850-51.
- US National Archives, Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) — https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act → approval on May 6, 1882; the suspension of the coming of Chinese laborers; the ten-year extension in 1892, permanence in 1902, and repeal of the exclusion acts in 1943.
- US National Archives, Chinese Immigration and the Chinese in the United States — https://www.archives.gov/research/chinese-americans/guide → the Section 6 exempt status for merchants; merchants exempt from exclusion; certificates permitting travel and the entry of a wife and family; the contents of exclusion-era case files, including merchants' testimony and passports, testimony of business colleagues and customers, partnership lists and photographs.
- American Social History Project / Who Built America?, CUNY Graduate Center — Heather Lee (NYU Shanghai), Chinese Restaurants During the Era of Exclusion — https://whobuiltamerica.org/item/chinese-restaurants-during-the-era-of-exclusion → restaurant owners treated as laborers who could not re-enter the US; immigration officials relenting in 1915 and conceding that Chinese restaurants were significant enterprises; merchant status granted typically to one partner at a time; Chinese eateries in New York City quadrupling between 1910 and 1920; Chinese restaurants as the largest employer of Chinese immigrants by mid-century.
- Pew Research Center (Sono Shah and Regina Widjaya), 71% of Asian restaurants in the U.S. serve Chinese, Japanese or Thai food, May 23, 2023 — https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/23/71-of-asian-restaurants-in-the-u-s-serve-chinese-japanese-or-thai-food/ → 787,153 open US restaurants as of March 23, 2023; 12% of US restaurants serving Asian food; 39% of Asian restaurants being Chinese; the caveat that cuisine tags can overlap.
Note on a claim deliberately not made: the 1915 change is reported by some outlets as a federal court ruling. Heather Lee's own signed account says immigration officials relented, and no specific 1915 decision could be identified, so this page follows her wording and names no court case. The widely repeated figure of "more than 40,000 Chinese restaurants" traces only to trade publications and aggregators and is not used.
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