Warning: what follows is a shameless use of this blogging forum for personal reasons.

<update>

I’m up and typing 汉字! Thanks much to the kind readers who wrote with suggestions, including one who apologized about being slow to follow up with a phone number because, well, she’d just had a baby and had been in the hospital!

I’m not sure why it worked, but in the end what did the trick was installing the multiling keyboard per Alastair’s comment below — not because I’m using that keyboard per se, but because during the setup process the system started recognizing that Google Pinyin (the one I originally wanted to use) was installed.

Anyway, thanks!

</update>

I’ve got an HTC Mytouch slide 4g I just brought back from the US that refuses to use the Google Pinyin IME (输入法) I’ve installed. I tried Sogou’s IME and can’t get it to work either.

Need I say that life in Beijing is not harmonious with a Chineseless cell phone? After numerous Factory Resets, an attempt at rooting, and plumbing the depths of my unapproved-for-10-year-old-daughter lexicon, I’m looking for a miracle.

If there’s a kind-hearted Android whiz out there who would be willing to sort through the fetid details with me, I’d be forever indebted. Just email me (syz AT sinoglot DOT com).

Tangentially, why does this always happen the same week you discover your second mouse is going haywire (the first one’s fresh in the trashcan that hasn’t even been taken out yet) and your laptop with the only functioning soundcard in the house gives up the ghost?