'I wanted to explore this new Chinese generation that is interesting and contradictory,' says auteur-director Wayne Wang, talking about The Princess of Nebraska, which opens this year's Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF).

Wang, born in 1949, shot to fame 26 years ago with Chan is Missing, hailed as the first feature film with an Asian American cast, producer, and director. Wang's two new films, Princess and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers - also part of SIFF2008 - mark his return to the indie feel of that seminal film.

In Princess, we follow 24 hours in the life of Sasha, a pregnant Chinese teenager adrift in San Francisco. She sees many possible choices: to go through with the pregnancy, and set up a family with the gay lover of her unborn child's bisexual father; to abort the child; to sell the child on the black market.

Self-centred and a fan of Paris Hilton, Sasha is pretty hard to like initially - but this, says the director, is deliberate. Reference is made in Princess about the post-Tiananmen Square generation of Chinese youngsters - many of whom are unaware of that watershed event - and Wang was curious to examine their psyche.

'I don't mean this as a general statement, but this young generation from China tend to be open, aggressive - often obnoxious - and without much of a moral anchor. Post-Cultural Revolution, they don't have roots in anything like spirituality or Confucianism, and have grown up with nothing to guide them other than material success and buying brands.'

Princess is not a pro-choice vs pro-life political debate, it is more a character study of choices. Also, 'metaphorically, this child in Sasha's belly is the future of China, and about decisions that China may take'.

As for the movie's sexual current, 'it seems it will always be there, even in a family movie like Eat a Bowl of Tea; it is part of my motivations and emotions when looking at a character. However, I try not to exoticise women in my films, I do work against the stereotype'.

But, he observes, whether it is the gorgeous peasant or skilled swordswoman, the cinematic cliches about Chinese women haven't changed much in the West.

'Superficially, yes, we have moved on, with more executives and directors in Hollywood being Asian. Then you get a film like Balls of Fury - where Christopher Walken portrays an evil ping-pong playing Asian - and it's as though we're back in the days of Fu Manchu.'

If there is a greater visible Asian presence, the players get co-opted more often into the Hollywood system - as with Justin Lin who directed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

'I fell into the trap too,' he chuckles, talking about his purely commercial directorial venture, Maid in Manhattan.

Wang's film career has been eclectic: apart from continuing to explore the experience of the Chinese immigrant community in America - the most successful of which was The Joy Luck Club - he has dabbled both in commercial and indie fare that includes cult fave Smoke, and notorious 'sex' film Centre of the World.

Partly to avoid being typecast, and partly because sticking with just the one format would bore him, 'I move back and forth between genres, but I don't think I'll return to the pure Hollywood experience; it was too emotionally stressful.'

He is an amusing raconteur of particularly soul-destroying big studio practices like 'the Pacing Pass, where the studio decides to go in and take out any moment in the film that doesn't 'do' anything - like the character pausing to breathe - to compress the film and make it fast- paced'.

Wang's essential sensibility is indie; Prayers' more classical format and Princess' jazz riff-like approach were ways back into his style. The subject matter, too, marks a return to exploring the Chinese in America, albeit the new generation. His next project could be based on a book about an immigrant Chinese family in the US, because 'I identified with a lot of the characters in it'.

Wang enjoys the process of working with writers like Paul Auster and Amy Tan, and with literary material - Princess and Prayers are based on short stories by Yiyun Li. He says: 'If I read a story and can already imagine it as a film, then the battle is half-won.'

Film financing, however, remains a tricky business. 'Chinese Box was easy to pre-sell with stars like Gong Li, but with indie filmmaking, I really don't want to play safe like the studios. It's only when you take chances and make something individual, that great results can happen - whether in the world of films or business.

'When studios give you money, they want control; a movie like Joy Luck Club where Disney only said 'make the movie within the budget', is a rare situation. As an independent filmmaker you have more risks, but more control - and when you make something like Smoke, an indie film that takes off, you do have the best of both worlds.'

Wang, who will be coming to SIFF, is looking forward to exploring the creative side of Singapore, not to mention Little India, his favourite spot here. 'When I first came in the early 70s I found it a restrictive place, but when I came in '97 to meet Gong Li for Chinese Box I enjoyed Singapore immensely as a global, inter-racial city.'

On the phone from San Francisco, Wang is affable and chatty as he muses about creativity, cinema and the decisions that led to a career that spans over 25 years, and has broken ground for Asian Americans working in film in the West.

Wang initially came to the US at age 17 to study painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland but stayed on to learn filmmaking.

'I'm most comfortable in California because of the multi-cultural sensibility, but I'm always going to be the inside-outsider. You could say that being born in Hong Kong to traditional Chinese parents, in a colonial climate and going to an Irish Jesuit school set it up!'

Thanks to SIFF, Singaporean filmgoers will have dual opportunities next month to see how Wang expresses this inside-outside persona in film.

SIFF, March 28 to April 14 showcases over 200 films from 40 countries.

Tickets from Sistic (call 6348 5555, or visit www.sistic.com) from March 11; for ticketing details, film ratings and programme information, visit www.filmfest.org.sg