As shown in classical linear system theory, the behavior of a linear system is determined by its intrinsic structure, but this connection for nonlinear systems has not been clearly identified and utilized. On the contrary, the intrinsic nonlinear structures of a system are indeed often ignored or even destroyed by linearization or feedback linearization methods. Recently, the success of homogeneity based approaches in designing state and output feedback stabilizers has led to renewed interests in this theory. This talk will sketch the recent efforts in revitalizing and advancing homogeneous system theory for analyzing nonlinear characterizations and designing nonlinear controllers. The specific topics will cover: homogeneity based approaches such as adding a power integrator and homogeneous domination approach for output feedback control; generalized homogeneous system theory and smooth controller design approaches; sampled-data output feedback control; applications to real systems for improved performances.