Leo Suryadinata

Leo Suryadinata (born Liauw Kian-Djoe [or Liao Jianyu; 廖建裕] in Jakarta, 21 February 1941) is an Indonesian-born Singaporean sinologist.

Early life Suryadinata was born Liauw Kian-Djoe (also written Liao Jianyu) in Batavia, Netherlands Indies (today Jakarta, Indonesia) to a Chinese Indonesian business family. His father was the owner of a building material factory. He had seven siblings.

During high school, Suryadinata read and wrote numerous papers on Indonesian and Chinese history and literature.

Education Suryadinata later attended Nanyang University in Singapore, where he graduated in 1962 with a bachelor of arts degree in Chinese and Southeast Asian literature.

In 2002, Suryadinata returned to ISEAS as a senior research fellow; he left in 2005. That year, he took a position as the director of the Chinese Heritage Center at Nanyang Technological University.

Personal life Suryadinata has one daughter.