Just a quick note for anybody who's currently in China or planning to visit. The newly opened Chinese Writing Museum (中国文字博物馆) in Anyang is absolutely great. From neolithic pots to Shang oracle bones to the standardisation under the Qin dynasty, to Han bamboo manuscripts, to the 21st century and romanisation, script simplification (interesting things on historical precedents for certain simplified characters) and computerisation - it's absolutely excellent, and a must for anybody with an interest in the longer history of Chinese characters. It's also uncommonly friendly. And it is free!

There's a website here, only in Chinese (the "English" link does nothing at the moment): http://www.wzbwg.com/

It's really worth a trip to Anyang to have a look. The only shortcoming is that they don't have a Skritter Hall, which of course they should. (By the way, whilst there, I thought that we really need a Shang Dynasty oracle bones script release of Skritter so that we can practice our own turtle-based divination in the comfort of our homes. Although turtles don't come cheap these days, and it's not much help whilst ordering in restaurants, so the market may be vanishingly small...)

Oops, that should read "20th century and Romanisation..." etc. etc. etc. Tsk, tsk!

Thanks for the tip! Definitely on the list now for next China visit.

Thanks a lot for the tip, that is great news. I will definitely go there very soon. This interest me a great deal since the character part is the fun part of studying Chinese.