The clothes, the back braids and shaved forehead indicate that the young man is from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). He is holding a red coral in his hand, a symbol of the Chinese erudite culture or literati. The red coral was regarded as a treasure, a worthy gift for an emperor in ancient China.
The workshops of Chinese artists produced paintings for export and marketed them in the most important ports in the late nineteenth century like the big city-port of Canton, Guangzhou today. These small format paintings show a wide range of aspects of Chinese life at a time when even photography was not popular. These miniatures were a portrait of China, a utopian desire in Europe.