Crowd turns out for Chinese New Year celebration in Santa Rosa

Maria Carrillo High School grads Kevin and Sophia Wang as children for years performed in the cultural dances at the annual Chinese New Year event in Santa Rosa. The married couple now volunteer, and as parents they’ve brought a third generation of Wang family members to celebrate.

“It’s good to bring our kids here and help promote the culture,” Kevin Wang said.

About 600 people filled the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building auditorium Sunday night to welcome in the year 4716 and a Year of the Dog. It’s a colorful event, with bright red decorations, music, food, a silent auction, a 250-foot red, gold and green dragon, and performances highlighting children’s dances and an adult chorus.

This year, Chinese New Year’s Day was Friday. But the day’s date is fluid, set by the lunar cycle and can fall between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20.

Huge celebrations were held in numerous cities worldwide as Chinese communities celebrated in Europe, Australia, Canada and throughout Asia.

Sonoma County businessman Kirk Lok and his wife, Cindy, come each year. His parents, Frances and Lawrence Lok, helped found the Redwood Empire Chinese Association.

“The community was much smaller 25 years ago,” Kirk Lok said.

“It’s nice to see the vitality, see all of these people enjoy the Chinese culture, seeing the new generations of young people.”

There were other three-generation families at the event, including the Yees of Santa Rosa.

This year they weren’t wearing their usual celebration clothing, though, because the October Tubbs fire destroyed their Fountaingrove home.

“We lost all our Chinese clothes, all our special things,” said Julie Rae Oliver who comes each year with her husband, Michael Yee, and daughter, Meleah, 11.

But the night remained a chance to keep the culture fresh for their daughter and connect with other families, including those with adopted Chinese children, Oliver said.

“We look forward to it,” he said.

Her father-in-law Robert Yee, a retired Santa Rosa physician, was honored Sunday night for years serving the Redwood Empire Chinese Association, which has sponsored the New Year’s celebration for 27 years.

For Teagan Wang, it was her first Chinese New Year celebration and the 10-month-old spent part of it in the arms of her grandfather, Luke Leung, another founding association member.

“We’re trying to introduce the Chinese culture to all people of different ages,” he said, as the tiny girl lifted her head off his shoulder and looked around the room.