@Mit, many thanks for your valued input. I concur very much with you that the iDrive should be using UTF-8 and that BMW would be silly not to include Chinese in Singapore.
I would much appreciate if you could post some pics of the idrive display with both Chinese and English characters - with it, I would be able to show the local dealer.
In your case, was the preferred language set to English? And yet it can display both Traditional and Simplified Chinese?
I have many chinese albums displaying correctly on iTunes and yet see only little rectangles on the iDrive.
@Losco, could I also trouble you to post some pics of the idrive showing both English and Japanese characters please?