Santa Rosa's Chinatown

June 9 – August 12, 2012

Public Opening Reception Friday, June 9, 5-7pm.
Museum Members are Free. Non-members $15.
Enjoy reception with Sonoma County wines and craft cheeses.
Live music.

Few residents know that Santa Rosa and other parts of the county had Chinatowns, for no traces of these cultural enclaves remain today. By preserving and sharing the legacy of Chinese Americans, we can creatively and critically engage the public with the experiences, history, and culture of Chinese Americans while simultaneously encouraging the public to explore their own.  The exhibition will explore the early arrival of Chinese people to Northern California and Sonoma County. It will investigate the waves of immigration that brought Chinese here, what drove them to leave China, where they came from and why they ended up here. It will explore how Chinese communities developed in Sonoma County, with special attention to Santa Rosa's Chinatown. It will also explore how Chinese people adapted and created community in what was often an inhospitable environment of hostility and xenophobia.