doesn't display chinese properly

[David Tansey]

Binary package hint: language-support-zh

I have used System->Admin->Language support to install Chinese language support. But my emails that are in Chinese don't display in Chinese (though the name next to the email does, oddly.) Should the language pack include some fonts its not? Or does evolution use some other framework that isn't being installed?

I should probably say that I did a fresh install from the latest dapper RC installation CD. I then restored my data. Everything was working in my previous daily dist-upgrade'd dapper system. I don't remember exactly which packages I had installed independent of the System-Admin-Language Support check box.

[Steven McCoy (dsbunny)]

As your system can display some Chinese the problem is more likely with the client application of the person sending you the email. That application is not marking the character encoding of the email, this is quite common with Hotmail and Foxmail. The workaround is to open up an email and force the email encoding: View > Character Encoding, and selected BIG5HKSCS for Traditional Chinese or GB2312 for SImplified Chinese, try the other options if these fail.

If you only communicate in one character set you can set the default in Edit > Preferences > Mail Preferences > Message Display > Default character encoding.

I would recommend telling the sender to simply upgrade their client application though as they will have this problem with every recipient not using the same program / webmail and character settings.