title: Multilingual systems and collations
body: <p>I have come across some confusion making my system accept multiple languages.</p>
  
  <p>Prior to setting up my database, I did some research as to which collation was best to use to support as many languages as possible. I was advised <code>utf8_unicode_ci</code> was the most viable encoding.</p>
  
  <p>The confusion arises where, although it seems my system can decode any language, phpmyadmin cannot:</p>
  
  <p><strong>Translation:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>English: 'hello'
  Chinese: '你好'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Encoding:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>System: '你好'
  Phpmyadmin: 'ä½ å¥½' &lt;------ should read: '你好'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How can I have phpmyadmin display these characters correctly?</p>