Lewis Perin wrote:
> This is fascinating stuff. But - and please don't take this as a
> protest - from the standpoint of someone who's never systematically
> studied the language, it seems like a tremendous amount to learn in
> order to understand a character. It makes me wonder how many readers
> of, say, Chinese newspapers have this level of literacy.

That's the problem, right? It takes years of concerted effort even for
native speakers, even using simplified characters.

BTW I'm drinking tieguanyin, as always ... kind of in a rut, but I love
it.