I'm the chairperson of the Amcham Shanghai I.T. Committee and we're having a joint event with the Legal Committee next Tuesday in Shanghai called "Development of Data Protection In China". It's open to both members and non-members, and the two speakers will be Grace Chen, a partner in the Corporate/Commercial Group of Bird & Bird law firm in Beijing and co-author of the China Q&A section in the PLC 2007/2008 Data Protection Handbook, and Ben Pasco, managing director of Legal Technologies Asia Pacific for Kroll Ontrack and professor of forensics at the China Institute of Defence, Science and Technology in Beijing. There is a new data security and privacy law that is rolling out soon in China, and it will affect direct marketers, advertisers, software companies, and anyone else that harbors data in China.

Last night I spent time at the opening night of the official Shanghai Oktoberfest — there are many Oktoberfest celebrations in Shanghai, but this is the one endorsed by the local government. We run and manage ShanghaiOktoberfest.com, which is the official website of the event and the festivities run for another ten days.

I've been a vegetarian for almost eight years. I don't drink milk and I don't eat eggs, but I eat fish about once every 6 weeks (when I am forced to in a social/business setting in China). I've tended to ignore all the troubles with Sanlu milk products because it just doesn't have any direct effect on me and what I eat. I'm sure that the problem associated with processed foods anywhere in the world are only the tip of the iceberg — most issues probably go unreported.