In SX Microcontrollers, SX/B Compiler and SX-Key Tool, George Herzog wrote:

Actually, the whole topic of Asian Characters is quite a muddle.  And quite a programing distraction.
Much of it is tied up in the evolution of the GUI as it would be nearly impossible to data process Chinese without it.

First you have three or more 16bit encoding formats that are used for documents [GB. Big5, Unicode, and Internet] which are mutally exclusive;
then you have different possible keyboard encodings; 
then you have TwinBridge coming along with proprietary Asian Outline Fonts [Window incompatibe] and a system that adapts Windows via proprietory overlays;
then you have China and Taiwan creating two separate Character Sets that are not one-to-one translations and don't even use the same radicals to seek a word in a dictionary;
then you have Microsoft creating three versions of their operating system to accomodate the politcal realities of Taiwan and China  [which means that when you buy Chinese fonts they may not install to your particular Windows system];
then you have a huge variety of printers and print drivers;
then you have all those different pixel densities that have evolved.

Also, systems with their fonts vary from as little as 1000 plus character to as many as 17,000.
So, if you can sidestep going into that maze - happiness.

It just ain't ASCII and makes EBDIC a snap.

Happily, I am much closer to actually being able to program a graphics LCD with a Chinese menu because of this revelation.

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