New Town Utopias: Lessons from China’s 21st-Century Urban Experiments

Professor Lin discusses his new book The book presents the first critical history of four decades of Chinese urbanization as an evolving national movement. Fourteen case studies of China's model new towns are examined to illuminate diverse approaches to city building and common challenges for growing new cities globally. The book also discusses how Western models of urbanism led to remarkable successes like the Suzhou Industrial Park, while they also challenged cultural identities in themed towns such as One City and Nine Towns Urban planning and design were instrumental in building eco-cities, but their failures contributed to the proliferation of ghost towns.

Zhongjie Lin is Benjamin Z. Lin Presidential Professor of Urban Design at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, where he serves as Head of the Urban Design program and directs the Future Cities Initiative. An internationally renowned expert in urban planning and design, Dr. Lin has published numerous books on Asian architecture and cities, including Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan (2010/2023), Vertical Urbanism: Designing Compact Cities in China (2018), and Constructing Utopias: China’s New Town Movement in the 21st Century (2025). He was the recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Abe Fellowship, and three Graham Foundation awards.

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Host or Publisher Center for East Asian Studies