title: Chinese characters showing as boxes in SQL Server 2005
body: <p>I just received a bunch of Chinese characters back from the localization people in Excel spreadsheet format. When I import the data into my SQL Server 2005 table (<code>nvarchar</code> columns) it displays as a bunch of boxes instead of the actual characters. I'm thinking this isn't right. Does anyone have an idea why it would be behaving this way? </p>
  
  <p>EDIT: The data is still represented in the boxes somehow. When I load the data into my application and bind it to a UI element it displays correctly as Chinese. The issue I am having is that if I initiate a messagebox.show using the Chinese characters I still get the boxes and I can't help but think this is related to the boxes I am seeing in the DB.</p>