Skype 5.5 Cannot Display Asian Characters

After upgrading to Skype 5.5, I found that Japanese and Chinese characters showed as a series of boxes. I could type or paste them and they would be visible on the other end, but not on my end. Similarly, if the other person wrote Asian characters, they would not render correctly, like this:

A temporary fix is to change the IM font to Arial Unicode MS, which may have to be enabled from the control panel. Here are the steps:

1. In the Skype menu, select Tools | Options, then click on “IM & SMS”, then “IM appearance”:
   

   

   
   

2. Click on “Change font” to bring up the font dialog:
   

   

   
   

3. If “Arial Unicode MS” is available, select it, click OK, then Save, and you’re done.

   If “Arial Unicode MS” is not available, then click “Show More Fonts” to bring up the Control Panel’s Font selector:

   

   
   

4. Locate “Arial Unicode MS”, click on it to select it, then click on “Show” in the toolbar. Close the Fonts window (click the red X). You will have to close the Font dialog as well, then reopen it, in order for the Arial Unicode MS font to be displayed.