I do know that when the older texts are given to almost all folks, there is some difficulty in reading. As for the newer shortened Chinese style, I have not idea. The few 'old Chinese' samples, as mentioned above, that are done in school don't seem to give most folks much reading ability.
One time when some friends of mine were here for a BBQ (and these were all people who were older than myself) I pulled out some books for the storage. There was only one lady who could read the texts--some of which were handwritten. She had studied that for a long period of time, and specialized in such writing. I'll see if I can get around to posting some examples here, some fine day...but it'll have to wait until after the JREF meet at my place on May 4th. MM