In order to get Asian Characters to render properly on ArchLinux you need to install a font which supports them. Even if you cannot read any of the characters I find it useful to have them installed to get wikipedia articles on geographical locations to render properly.
In order to cover most of Asia I installed the following fonts:
- adobe-source-han-serif-cn-fonts
- adobe-source-han-serif-jp-fonts
- adobe-source-han-serif-kr-fonts