Zhongjie Lin, associate professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, recently published a book, titled Constructing Utopias: China's Emerging New Town Movement, with the Princeton University Press.

The publication examines the contemporary "new town movement" in China. This ideology focuses on the relationship between construction of cities and the social sphere. The UPenn news post states that "approximately 16 million Chinese residents move from rural areas into cities each year. This enormous urbanization has continued for more than a quarter century..."

Lin's book examines this humungous, modern exodus and inspects the emerging patterns of urban growth as a result of China attempting to create cities in areas that lie mostly rural today.

The post continues by saying, "China's urbanization carries with it economic ramifications and environmental implications that far exceed the movements of the mid-twentieth century and, indeed, of any previous time in history."

In 2011, Lin received a grant from the Graham Foundation, an educational-type of organization that gifts grants to projects pertaining to architecture. The entire news release is available by clicking HERE.