The Western World as Utopia?

Chinese middle and upper classes are moving into new neighbourhoods in

which the architecture, names, and atmosphere are inspired by Western

patterns, a new fashion that is intended to convey an exotic way of life

but which has received much criticism from commentators, both Chinese

and Western. This paper makes a detailed study of families’ living habits

in Thames Town, Songjiang to show that residents are not experiencing

an acculturation process, neither are they trying to imitate Western ways

of life, they are in fact generating new logics in managing their homes

and families, which enables us to better understand their aspirations. By

using Foucault’s concept of the heterotopia, the paper also establishes a

genealogy of Western postmodern contemporary thought on the concept

of utopia.