Paper box packaging for black bean paste cakes

This box was the packaging for Chinese Teochew black bean paste cakes. The illustration depicts a familiar courtship scene in Chinese folk culture involving a Confucian scholar and a beautiful damsel accompanied by her young maid. This box belongs to a series of objects (accession nos. 2007-50972 to 51483) that document the lifestyle and consumption of a typical Chinese upper middle-class family in the mid 20th century.