隨著中國的崛起，「中國是什麼」，成了知識界的顯學。本文採知識社會學的研究途徑，認為觀點的形成有其歷史、社會、政經及文化的脈絡。本文聚焦於一種既與中國疏離但又存有文化連結的華裔身分中，探討本土認同的跨國華人如何思考中國。本研究並以廖建裕為例，循知識社會學的研究途徑，以其學術研究、文學作品及其所處的社會和時代背景為探討對象，勾勒出他的中國詮釋，為中國學的系統研究提供另一種不同的中國知識觀。知識無法自外於人所處之環境，而人又是鑲嵌在歷史和文化脈絡的行動體。做為一具備反思力的行動者，人類知識的生產不僅僅客觀地再現外在於其實體，亦有其主觀的詮釋。本文並探討中國、中國研究與中國學知識社群之間的相互建構關係。

China has been a popular research subject in the past few decades, while the way to view China has witnessed dramatic changes. This research holds that it is important to systematically study the relationships between China studies and the social, economic and political forces guiding through analyzing the analytical angles selected by scholars have an impact upon how they perceive China. In the China studies communities, the ethnic Chinese scholars' knowledge of China in Southeast Asian is a noteworthy example: their identities imply diverse degree of Chinese history and cultural inheritance. The variety of ethnic Chinese identities represents the different epistemology of China.This research aims to add to the "Epistemology of China Studies" project by exploring the perspective of ethnic Chinese interpretation of China through Prof. Leo Suryadinata, who perceives China from a distant, yet culturally connected viewpoint. Through the sociology of knowledge approach, we could understand Leo Suryadinata's China interpretation which involves an alien emotion in his academic and literature works, and also from the Southeast Asian Chinese society where he locates in. In Leo Suryadinata's epistemology of China, China is an alien homeland and an object as he interprets it. On the other hand, as Leo Suryadinata's interpretational tool, China is a concept of ethnic Chinese identities with redefinition.