diff --git a/src/icu4c-test.c b/src/icu4c-test.c
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3fa4a228
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/icu4c-test.c
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+/*
+ * This file is part of MXE. See LICENSE.md for licensing information.
+ */
+
+/*** ugrep.c ***/
+
+/*** https://begriffs.com/posts/2019-05-23-unicode-icu.html ***/
+
+#include <locale.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <string.h>
+
+#include <unicode/ucol.h>
+#include <unicode/usearch.h>
+#include <unicode/ustdio.h>
+#include <unicode/ustring.h>
+
+#define BUFSZ 1024
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv)
+{
+    char *locale;
+    UFILE *in;
+    UCollator *col;
+    UStringSearch *srch = NULL;
+    UErrorCode status = U_ZERO_ERROR;
+    UChar *needle, line[BUFSZ];
+    UColAttributeValue strength;
+    int ignoreInsignificant = 0, asymmetric = 0;
+    size_t n;
+    long i;
+
+    if (argc != 3)
+    {
+        fprintf(stderr,
+            "Usage: %s {1,2,@,3}[i] pattern\n", argv[0]);
+        return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    }
+
+    /* cryptic parsing for our cryptic options */
+    switch (*argv[1])
+    {
+        case '1':
+            strength = UCOL_PRIMARY;
+            break;
+        case '2':
+            strength = UCOL_SECONDARY;
+            break;
+        case '@':
+            strength = UCOL_SECONDARY, asymmetric = 1;
+            break;
+        case '3':
+            strength = UCOL_TERTIARY;
+            break;
+        default:
+            fprintf(stderr,
+                "Unknown strength: %s\n", argv[1]);
+            return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    }
+    /* length of argv[1] is >0 or we would have died */
+    ignoreInsignificant = argv[1][strlen(argv[1])-1] == 'i';
+
+    n = strlen(argv[2]) + 1;
+    /* if UTF-8 could encode it in n, then UTF-16
+     * should be able to as well */
+    needle = malloc(n * sizeof(*needle));
+    u_strFromUTF8(needle, n, NULL, argv[2], -1, &status);
+
+    /* searching is a degenerate case of collation,
+     * so we read the LC_COLLATE locale */
+    if (!(locale = setlocale(LC_COLLATE, "")))
+    {
+        fputs("Cannot determine system collation locale\n",
+              stderr);
+        return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    }
+
+    if (!(in = u_finit(stdin, NULL, NULL)))
+    {
+        fputs("Error opening stdin as UFILE\n", stderr);
+        return EXIT_FAILURE;
+    }
+
+    col = ucol_open(locale, &status);
+    ucol_setStrength(col, strength);
+
+    if (ignoreInsignificant)
+        /* shift ignorable characters down to
+         * quaternary level */
+        ucol_setAttribute(col, UCOL_ALTERNATE_HANDLING,
+                          UCOL_SHIFTED, &status);
+
+    /* Assumes all lines fit in BUFSZ. Should
+     * fix this in real code and not increment i */
+    for (i = 1; u_fgets(line, BUFSZ, in); ++i)
+    {
+        /* first time through, set up all options */
+        if (!srch)
+        {
+            srch = usearch_openFromCollator(
+                needle, -1, line, -1,
+                col, NULL, &status
+            );
+            if (asymmetric)
+                usearch_setAttribute(
+                    srch, USEARCH_ELEMENT_COMPARISON,
+                    USEARCH_PATTERN_BASE_WEIGHT_IS_WILDCARD,
+                    &status
+                );
+        }
+        /* afterward just switch text */
+        else
+            usearch_setText(srch, line, -1, &status);
+
+        /* check if keyword appears in line */
+        if (usearch_first(srch, &status) != USEARCH_DONE)
+            u_printf("%ld: %S", i, line);
+    }
+
+    usearch_close(srch);
+    ucol_close(col);
+    u_fclose(in);
+    free(needle);
+
+    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
+}
diff --git a/src/icu4c.mk b/src/icu4c.mk
index 133bffcb..b1b9b4cf 100644
--- a/src/icu4c.mk
+++ b/src/icu4c.mk
@@ -33,23 +33,32 @@ define $(PKG)_BUILD_COMMON
         --with-cross-build='$(PREFIX)/$(BUILD)/$(PKG)' \
         CFLAGS=-DU_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE=0 \
         CXXFLAGS='--std=gnu++0x' \
-        SHELL=bash \
+        SHELL=$(SHELL) \
+        LIBS='-lstdc++' \
         $($(PKG)_CONFIGURE_OPTS)
 
-    $(MAKE) -C '$(BUILD_DIR)' -j '$(JOBS)'
-    $(MAKE) -C '$(BUILD_DIR)' -j 1 install
+    $(MAKE) -C '$(BUILD_DIR)' -j '$(JOBS)' VERBOSE=1
+    $(MAKE) -C '$(BUILD_DIR)' -j 1 install VERBOSE=1
     ln -sf '$(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/bin/icu-config' '$(PREFIX)/bin/$(TARGET)-icu-config'
 endef
 
+define $(PKG)_BUILD_TEST
+    '$(TARGET)-gcc' \
+        -W -Wall -Werror -ansi -pedantic \
+        '$(TEST_FILE)' -o '$(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/bin/test-$(PKG).exe' \
+        `'$(TARGET)-pkg-config' icu-uc icu-io --cflags --libs`
+endef
+
 define $(PKG)_BUILD_SHARED
     $($(PKG)_BUILD_COMMON)
     # icu4c installs its DLLs to lib/. Move them to bin/.
     mv -fv $(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/lib/icu*.dll '$(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/bin/'
     # add symlinks icu*<version>.dll.a to icu*.dll.a
-    for lib in `ls '$(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/lib/' | grep 'icu.*\.dll\.a' | cut -d '.' -f 1 | tr '\n' ' '`; \
+    for lib in $$(ls '$(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/lib/' | grep 'icu.*\.dll\.a' | cut -d '.' -f 1 | tr '\n' ' '); \
     do \
         ln -fs "$(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/lib/$${lib}.dll.a" "$(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/lib/$${lib}$($(PKG)_MAJOR).dll.a"; \
     done
+    $($(PKG)_BUILD_TEST)
 endef
 
 define $(PKG)_BUILD
@@ -57,4 +66,5 @@ define $(PKG)_BUILD
     # Static libs are prefixed with an `s` but the config script
     # doesn't detect it properly, despite the STATIC_PREFIX="s" line
     $(SED) -i 's,ICUPREFIX="icu",ICUPREFIX="sicu",' '$(PREFIX)/$(TARGET)/bin/icu-config'
+    $($(PKG)_BUILD_TEST)
 endef