Just fired up! 🔥 The 2026 IAC International Ceramics Congress has officially kicked off in Jingdezhen, the "Porcelain Capital" of China. 🌍 Bringing together 400+ artists and scholars from across the globe, this 5-day gathering celebrates clay, creativity, and cultural connections. IAC President Oriol Calvo praised China’s enduring ceramic legacy—and the world is listening. Stay tuned for more highlights from one of the art world’s most anticipated events! 6月28日，被誉为全球陶艺界“奥林匹克”的2026IAC国际陶艺学会大会在“千年瓷都”中国江西景德镇隆重开幕。本次大会以“传承与创新”为主题，汇聚了来自全球的400余位陶艺家与学者。 #China# #Jiangxi# #赣出新精彩# #赣鄱风韵# #世界遗产景德镇# #IAC2026# #Ceramics# #Jingdezhen# #ArtDiplomacy# #GlobalArt# #ClayCommunity#

What she did next defied all expectations. When Alice Walton stepped into her massive inheritance from Walmart, she became one of the wealthiest women on the planet, sitting atop a fortune that currently rivals the GDP of entire nations. Most people look at a number that large and see a score to be guarded—a hoard to be protected at all costs. But Alice looked at her billions and saw a powerful tool to change the world. Alice was born in 1949 and grew up watching her father, Sam Walton, transform a small, dusty five-and-dime store into a global retail empire. Her father was famously frugal, driving an old pickup truck even when he became one of the richest men in the world. When he passed away in 1992, he left his children a massive mountain of capital. While her brothers, Jim and Rob, stepped straight into the corporate boardrooms to keep the family business thriving, Alice chose a path that was much less predictable. Her heart was never under the bright fluorescent lights of a department store. Her eyes were always drawn to the walls instead of the balance sheets. "Art was always a lifeline for me, a way to see the world through a completely different lens," Alice once shared when reflecting on her childhood. She started collecting art at a young age, but she eventually realized that keeping beautiful things locked away in a private living room didn't do the world any good. In 2011, she shocked the global art community by opening the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was a massive 1.2 billion dollar gamble, and big-city critics in New York and London initially laughed at the idea. They couldn't understand why world-class masterpieces by iconic artists like Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Jackson Pollock were being sent to a tiny town of 50,000 people in the rural Ozarks. They dismissed it as a billionaire’s expensive hobby. Alice ignored the critics completely. She had a vision that was radical in its simplicity. "Why shouldn't a kid from a rural trailer park have the same access to the soul of American culture as a socialite living on the Upper East Side?" she noted before the opening. To make sure that dream came true, she made a bold decision: admission to the museum would be completely free for everyone. The gamble paid off in a huge way. Since the doors opened, over six million people have walked through the halls of Crystal Bridges. It didn't become a playground for elite critics. Instead, it filled up with local school groups, working families, and travelers who finally had a reason to stop in rural Arkansas. By removing the price tag, Alice tore down the invisible wall that usually separates everyday people from high culture, proving that art belongs to everyone, not just the wealthiest zip codes. But her ambition didn't stop with art. Recently, she turned her attention from the spirit to the body, addressing a major crisis facing rural America: a desperate shortage of doctors. She founded the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in her home state. To build a healthcare system that actually serves forgotten communities, she made another incredible announcement. For the first classes of the school's operation, the students would pay absolutely zero tuition. "We have to change how we think about medicine," she stated during the development of the school. "It is about teaching new doctors to focus on whole-health, treating the entire person rather than just the disease, and making sure they can afford to practice where they are needed most." Alice's story isn't a traditional rags-to-riches tale, and her philanthropy doesn't magically erase the deep public debates about wealth inequality or corporate labor practices. However, her choices provide a fascinating lesson in what it means to live with intention. For many ultra-wealthy individuals, money is an addiction where the hunger only grows the more you consume. They spend their entire lives trying to turn billions into even more billions, trapped in a loop of endless accumulation. Alice broke that cycle. She saw that while wealth can trap you in wanting more and more, it can also help free someone else. She knew that the real worth of money is not in keeping it, but in giving it away.

It was a genuine pleasure hosting two of our prospective partners from Türkiye at CJ over the past two days — and honestly, one of the warmest visits we've had this year. They are e‑commerce mentors with a real following overseas. Through their media channels, they teach people how to start and grow a business on e‑commerce platforms, and their guidance has helped a great many young entrepreneurs take their very first step. With that kind of influence, they are careful about who they stand behind — which is exactly why their trip to China meant so much to us. They told us plainly: they came because they consider CJ a supplier they can trust. Day one — CJ Hangzhou HQ. We walked them through our head office, our teams, and how we work day to day. Again and again they stopped us with the same remark: "CJ is so much bigger than we imagined." They had a picture in their head before landing, and reality simply exceeded it. Day two — Yiwu office, factory and warehouse. We took them through our full backend: sourcing, production lines, quality inspection, packing and outbound. They were amazed by the scale of the supply chain system behind every single order. Customization was what interested them most, so we built the visit around it — laser engraving, carbonized leather effects, embroidery, and everything else we can offer partners who want their own branding on a product. They watched each process closely, because when you are the one advising thousands of sellers, you need to know exactly what a factory can and cannot do. Between sessions we also went to the Yiwu International Trade City on their own. When they came back, one of them said something we will remember for a long time: China had far exceeded what they imagined — so developed, and so efficient, that walking around felt a little like seeing the future ahead of schedule. But the biggest impression, they insisted, was none of the infrastructure. It was the people. Chinese people are truly kind, they said, and they had felt warmly looked after at every stop. We told them this is simply an old Chinese tradition: when a friend comes from far away, you open your door, you sit down together, and you make sure they see everything clearly. Because trust is the beginning of every real partnership — and trust can only be built face to face. In return, our guests insisted on treating us to authentic Turkish cuisine, and happily walked us through Turkish food culture dish by dish. That is how the best kind of exchange works: hospitality given, hospitality returned. And one small moment that made us all laugh — they noticed that in our office, on almost everyone's desk, there is a stack of tissue packets. They asked about it several times, genuinely puzzled. Yes. This is a Chinese office thing. You would not believe how normal it is to us. Grateful for this encounter, and grateful to be trusted. We hope these two days give their audience even more confidence in what Chinese supply chains can deliver — and we look forward to growing together. #CrossBorderEcommerce# #CJTeam# #GlobalPartners# #Turkiye# #SupplierTrust# #Customization# #Yiwu# #EntrepreneurMindset# #CulturalExchange# #CJdropshipping#