Sonoma group holds New Year’s celebration to honor Chinese laborers, raises money for pavilion

More than 150 years ago, a quarter of Sonoma’s residents were Chinese immigrants who helped form Wine Country, planting grapes and building irrigation systems and wine cellars before being pushed out by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Their labor contributions aren’t widely recognized, according to local historians.

To honor those forgotten workers, who suffered from low pay, crowded living conditions and bigotry, the Sonoma Sister Cities Association held a Chinese New Year’s celebration Sunday at Jacuzzi Family Vineyards.

Nearly 200 guests, including Sonoma Mayor Amy Herrington and Chinese Ambassador Wang Donghua, attended the event, organized by the association’s Sonoma-Penglai committee to raise money to build a ting, or Chinese-style pavilion, in Sonoma’s Depot Park.

“I am deeply moved by the fact that in history some Chinese here working in wineries came from my hometown,” said Donghua, who is from the northeast Chinese province of Shandong and serves as the consul general for the People’s Republic of China in San Francisco.

Donghua’s opening comments to the crowd touched upon the strength of collaboration between California’s Wine Country and China, and the pain of trade tariffs introduced by the Trump administration in September.

Last year, 90 percent of U.S. wine exports to China were from California and taxes on American wine sold in China rose by up to 60 percent, according to the Wine Institute, a wine advocacy group.

“We hope that 40 years of diplomatic relations have told us that cooperation is in the best interest of our two countries,” Donghua said.

Sonoma’s sister city in China is Penglai, and over the past decade the committee has fostered friendships between the two towns.

At one point, students from both cities even exchanged contact information and became pen pals, according to committee members.

“We have an unusually strong relationship with our sister city,” Herrington said.

Peggy Phelan, Sonoma-Penglai committee chair, said the idea of building a Ting to honor Chinese immigrant laborers has been three or four years in the making. She’s hoping to get a building permit within a month and break ground at Depot Park sometime this year. The Chinese style pavilion will be funded by donations.

“It’s an important symbol of friendship,” Donghua said about the Ting plans.

Dancers and singers performed during the Chinese New Year celebration. Guests dined on dumplings, scallion pancakes, Chao Nian Gao (rice cakes) and a traditional roast pig in honor of the Year of the Pig.

“It’s the best Chinese New Year outside of China,” Donghua said.