To force mysql database use character set utf8 you have to add some configuration to file /etc/mysql/my.cnf
[client] default-character-set=utf8 [mysql] default-character-set=utf8 [mysqld] init_connect='SET collation_connection = utf8_general_ci; SET NAMES utf8;' character-set-server=utf8 collation-server=utf8_general_ci skip-character-set-client-handshake