Santa Rosa Chinatown Presented by Nancy Wang

Nancy Wang, president of the Redwood Empire Chinese Association will present the history and significance of Santa Rosa's Chinatown.

While Chinese residents already lived in Santa Rosa by 1890, the year is a good starting point for the establishment of Santa Rosa’s historic Chinatown as a defined neighborhood. Consisting of wood sidewalks and modest buildings along Second Street, it was occupied by a community of mostly men, and an occasional family, isolated to that part of the city as racism and anti-Chinese rhetoric reached a peak in the 1880s.

While the Chinese American community is currently more equally integrated into the North Bay, the important threads of community, culture, language, tradition, ritual, and history remain tightly woven into the fabric of Sonoma County.

Nancy Wang and her late husband Joe Wang at our Goji Kitchen luncheon. Photo by Mary Esposito.