Parian Politics: Sculpting Race and Protectionism in Union Porcelain Works' Chinese Argument

This study examines the Union Porcelain Works’ Chinese Argument as a politically charged sculptural tableau that materializes late nineteenth-century debates over race, labor, and national belonging. Through close visual analysis and contextual research, the essay argues that the figural group transforms Republican protectionist ideology and racialized immigration discourse into neoclassical allegory, staging a hierarchical narrative in which White paternalism presides over the conditional inclusion of Black Americans and the categorical exclusion of Chinese immigrants. By situating the object within contemporary political rhetoric, ceramic exhibition culture, and the industrial ambitions of UPW owner Thomas Smith, the analysis demonstrates how decorative art functioned as a medium of partisan persuasion and civic pedagogy. The sculpture emerges as both product and agent of an era that increasingly defined American citizenship through racial boundaries, foreshadowing the legal and ideological structures that would shape U.S. immigration and civil rights for decades.