I N T E R V I E W Wayne Wang - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ALSO THIS WEEK Nightwatch Dark, dank, disgusting, sadistic and no fun at all: It's the perfect post-"Seven" thriller - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LAST WEEK City of Angels Real romance in "Wings of Desire" remake The Spanish Prisoner David Mamet's clever but empty tale of con men in the Caribbean The Butcher Boy "Crying Game" director Neil Jordan probes the fine line between normal childhood and full-on insanity - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Blue Glow DAILY TV PICKS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - RECENTLY A full list of recent reviews, interviews and table talk. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE ARCHIVES MOVIES TELEVISION INTERVIEWS FEATURES

THINKING OUTSIDE THE "CHINESE BOX" | PAGE 2 OF 2 The story is mainly told from the perspective of a British person, rather than from a Hong Kong person, so that you're focusing on the passage of the old -- because we don't know what's coming next, is that it? Right. And because I really wanted to make the main character a bit of my own alter ego. The English journalist [emigrating from Hong Kong] is probably closer to who I am. Than an incoming Hong Kong entrepreneur? Yes. I have no interest or relationship with that kind of person, except as an outsider. I'm not a Hong Kong person anymore. I'm much more American now, and I don't pretend that I could completely understand Hong Kong. So I chose to do it from the Jeremy Irons [character's] perspective. Although I did put in a Hong Kong character, Vivian's boyfriend, as a main character, I felt more comfortable talking about the film from the Jeremy Irons perspective. If I were living and breathing in Hong Kong and a Hong Kong filmmaker, I would have chosen another route. But I am an ex-Hong Kong person, brought up by the English. I went to a British public school -- a Jesuit school, very strict, very religious, very Catholic. When I grew up I wanted to be -- for a while, I wanted to be English. Some of my friends were English, and it was also hip to be English. The culture was very pervasive, and we were very influenced by it. I listened mostly to English rock 'n' roll. And even after I left Hong Kong and went back, I was still hanging out with the hip colonial crowd, and in a way I know that world very well. Cricket? Oh yeah. Bowling, horse riding, racing, cucumber sandwiches, sandwiches with a lot of butter and the crusts cut off, little triangles, Ovaltine, Ribena. I still love Ribena. You can get it in Chinatown. So I know that world, and I love it and hate it. Both at once? Of course. I'm supposed to be Chinese and in a way I don't know my Chinese side as well. And these [British] people are also racist. And I was racist along with them. I would say, "Look at those stupid Chinese, they spit on the street, no culture at all." How did you come to terms with your heritage? Was America the big window opener for you? Yes. I came to Oakland to study art. My mother encouraged me. I was living with a very liberal American family. They were involved with every movement possible, anti-draft, Black Panthers, and all of a sudden my world and my window to it opened up. This was '68 through the early '70s. The revolution. The whole world opened up to me. I saw how narrow the colonial world was, how narrow the Hong Kong Chinese world was, and that's when I changed -- a lot. What do you feel will happen to Hong Kong now that capitalism can't have unlimited sway? What's happening is very deep-rooted and may not be visible immediately. Things like, for example, education. There's a definite shift from teaching English to teaching more Mandarin. That was already made a law, right after the changeover. Teaching more Chinese, more Mandarin and more emphasis on singing the Chinese national anthem. China is becoming much more consumer-oriented. Is it the new China that's going to affect Hong Kong rather than the old Communist regime? Yes. The new China. Now you walk down the street or go into the subway, half the people you see are non-Hong Kong born residents, they're new immigrants from China. That's changing the texture of the population. The education is changing because they're teaching more about China. But there's a lot of self-censorship. Hong Kong is so reliant on China and also needs to kiss China's ass about everything, whether it's business or government issues or whatever, that the newspapers, the movie exhibitors, are basically censoring themselves. Why? Why? Because, for example, the South China Morning Post used to be an English paper, English-owned. Now it's owned by some Southeast Asian businessmen who have strong businesses in China. So if you're a journalist and you write a story about Tibet, it'll get put on Page 10 rather than on Page 1. That's what happens. Three movies -- "Kundun," "Seven Days in Tibet," "Red Corner" -- will probably not get shown in Hong Kong. And not because of censorship, but because of self-censorship. The invisible enemy. Which is more dangerous and very pervasive. Everything is connected to China and Hong Kong is worried about alienating China. In the end, it's a very dog-eat-dog capitalistic society. Because unless you can make it, nobody's going to care. That's what Hong Kong is. SALON | April 17, 1998 Liza Bear is a contributing editor for Bomb magazine. She has written about film for the New York Times and Newsday.