Crossword Genius

A little Chinese burn and the trace remains (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

character

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'trace remains' is the definition.
'character' can be an answer for 'trace' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'remains' bit.

'a little chinese burn and the' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'chinese' could be 'ch' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ch' is present in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'racer' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for character that I've seen before include "Person in a play; letter" , "I, for example" , "Quality" , "Nonconformist" , "Letter or number" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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