Utopia, broadly defined as an imaginary spatial construct that possesses nearly perfect quality, was first introduced into China at the end of the nineteenth century. It found various manifestations in fictions, political ideas, social institutions, cultural movements, and above all, revolutionary campaigns throughout China’s twentieth century. This course will inquire into the polemics and poetics of utopian imaginations in various literary and intellectual discourse from the late Qing to the millennium turn. We will explore critical questions such as: what is the relationship between utopian construct and political reality? How various genres (fiction, thought, social sciences, and spatial designs) have framed the debate on utopia in the Chinese context? How “revolution and “enlightenment" – the two intertwining themes of modern China – have profoundly shaped the affective, aesthetic, and political dimensions of utopia imaginary in Chinese modernity? Lastly, how does the rise of dystopian vision of history following the fall of the Cultural Revolution bring challenges to the theory and practice of utopian thinking?