diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 8917ffa5..1db9c23d 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
 ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
 
 RUN --mount=type=cache,sharing=locked,target=/var/cache/apt apt-get update \
-    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends build-essential libpq-dev python3-venv opencc git
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends build-essential libpq-dev python3-venv git
 
 COPY requirements.txt /neodb/
 WORKDIR /neodb
@@ -27,8 +27,7 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,sharing=locked,target=/var/cache/apt-run apt-get update \
     && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends libpq-dev \
         busybox \
         nginx \
-        gettext-base \
-        opencc
+        gettext-base
 RUN busybox --install
 
 COPY . /neodb
@@ -40,7 +39,6 @@ RUN /neodb-venv/bin/python3 manage.py collectstatic --noinput
 RUN mv /neodb/neodb-takahe /takahe
 WORKDIR /takahe
 COPY --from=build /takahe-venv /takahe-venv
-RUN pwd && ls
 RUN TAKAHE_DATABASE_SERVER="postgres://x@y/z" TAKAHE_SECRET_KEY="t" TAKAHE_MAIN_DOMAIN="x.y" /takahe-venv/bin/python3 manage.py collectstatic --noinput
 
 WORKDIR /neodb
@@ -51,5 +49,4 @@ RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 USER app:app
 
-# invoke check by default
 CMD [ "neodb-hello"]
diff --git a/common/templatetags/highlight.py b/common/templatetags/highlight.py
index 48a23c36..45ab84ae 100644
--- a/common/templatetags/highlight.py
+++ b/common/templatetags/highlight.py
@@ -3,21 +3,28 @@
 from django import template
 from django.template.defaultfilters import stringfilter
 from django.utils.safestring import mark_safe
-from opencc import OpenCC
 
-cc = OpenCC("t2s")
 register = template.Library()
 
 
+# opencc is removed for now due to package installation issues
+# to re-enable it, add it to Dockerfile/requirements.txt and uncomment the following lines
+# from opencc import OpenCC
+# cc = OpenCC("t2s")
+def _cc(text):
+    return text
+    # return cc.convert(text)
+
+
 @register.filter
 @stringfilter
 def highlight(text, search):
-    otext = cc.convert(text.lower())
+    otext = _cc(text.lower())
     l = len(text)
     if l != len(otext):
         return text  # in rare cases, the lowered&converted text has a different length
     rtext = ""
-    words = list(set([w for w in cc.convert(search.strip().lower()).split(" ") if w]))
+    words = list(set([w for w in _cc(search.strip().lower()).split(" ") if w]))
     words.sort(key=len, reverse=True)
     i = 0
     while i < l:
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b093a612..c9dccdf8 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ loguru
 lxml
 markdownify
 mistune
-opencc
 openpyxl
 podcastparser
 psycopg2-binary