Wayne Wang has a special position in American cinema — though drawing story and characters with the compassionate warmth that has become his trademark he remains an outside observer, perched on the periphery of many screen lives.
"That's because I've never become part of the American fabric" says Wang, whose latest work, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," had U.S. critics remarking that the director has gone back to his Chinese roots after a stint of increasingly generic Hollywood works like "Maid in Manhattan."
Wang laughs: "I'm not sure I agree with that assessment either," during a promotion trip to Tokyo for his new film. "I came to the U.S. from Hong Kong when I was 18 . . . so to me, mainland China is still pretty much of a mystery and my generation (Wang is 60 years old) still sees the repercussions of the Cultural Revolution. And the Hong Kong where I grew up is no longer there. So what exactly are my roots? It's hard to say."