For future reference, this fixes all woes:
sudo apt-get install xfonts-wqy
UPDATE: a much better solution is to install a pretty TTF font and then make all the characters bigger.
sudo apt-get install fonts-wqy-zenhei fonts-wqy-microhei
Then create a file ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf
with the following contents:
<?xml version = "1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> <fontconfig> <match target="font"> <test qual="any" name="family" compare="eq"> <string>WenQuanYi Zen Hei</string> </test> <edit name="pixelsize" mode="assign"> <times> <name>pixelsize</name> <double>1.5</double> </times> </edit> </match> </fontconfig>
Oh yeah: am trying to learn some Chinese characters! Prompted by the arrival of an enormous Chinese phone at work.