diff --git a/pysnooper/pycompat.py b/pysnooper/pycompat.py
index 63dd3db..de0a472 100644
--- a/pysnooper/pycompat.py
+++ b/pysnooper/pycompat.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import inspect
 import sys
 
 PY3 = (sys.version_info[0] == 3)
+PY2 = not PY3
 
 if hasattr(abc, 'ABC'):
     ABC = abc.ABC
diff --git a/pysnooper/tracer.py b/pysnooper/tracer.py
index 089b817..480d60a 100644
--- a/pysnooper/tracer.py
+++ b/pysnooper/tracer.py
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ import traceback
 
 from .variables import CommonVariable, Exploding, BaseVariable
 from . import utils, pycompat
+if pycompat.PY2:
+    from io import open
 
 
 ipython_filename_pattern = re.compile('^<ipython-input-([0-9]+)-.*>$')
@@ -84,7 +86,7 @@ def get_source_from_frame(frame):
     # apply tokenize.detect_encoding to decode the source into a
     # string, then we should do that ourselves.
     if isinstance(source[0], bytes):
-        encoding = 'ascii'
+        encoding = 'utf-8'
         for line in source[:2]:
             # File coding may be specified. Match pattern from PEP-263
             # (https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0263/)
@@ -130,7 +132,8 @@ class FileWriter(object):
         self.overwrite = overwrite
 
     def write(self, s):
-        with open(self.path, 'w' if self.overwrite else 'a') as output_file:
+        with open(self.path, 'w' if self.overwrite else 'a',
+                  encoding='utf-8') as output_file:
             output_file.write(s)
         self.overwrite = False
 
diff --git a/tests/test_chinese.py b/tests/test_chinese.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..269c8df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_chinese.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+# Copyright 2019 Ram Rachum and collaborators.
+# This program is distributed under the MIT license.
+
+import io
+import textwrap
+import threading
+import types
+import sys
+
+from pysnooper.utils import truncate
+from python_toolbox import sys_tools, temp_file_tools
+import pytest
+
+import pysnooper
+from pysnooper import pycompat
+from pysnooper.variables import needs_parentheses
+from .utils import (assert_output, assert_sample_output, VariableEntry,
+                    CallEntry, LineEntry, ReturnEntry, OpcodeEntry,
+                    ReturnValueEntry, ExceptionEntry)
+
+
+
+def test_chinese():
+    with temp_file_tools.create_temp_folder(prefix='pysnooper') as folder:
+        path = folder / 'foo.log'
+        @pysnooper.snoop(path)
+        def foo():
+            a = 1
+            x = '失败'
+            return 7
+
+        foo()
+        with path.open(encoding='utf-8') as file:
+            output = file.read()
+        assert_output(
+            output,
+            (
+                CallEntry(),
+                LineEntry(),
+                VariableEntry('a'),
+                LineEntry(u"x = '失败'"),
+                VariableEntry(u'x', (u"'失败'" if pycompat.PY3 else None)),
+                LineEntry(),
+                ReturnEntry(),
+                ReturnValueEntry('7')
+            ),
+        )
diff --git a/tests/utils.py b/tests/utils.py
index b77e1f6..05185f0 100644
--- a/tests/utils.py
+++ b/tests/utils.py
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ def assert_output(output, expected_entries, prefix=None):
 
     any_mismatch = False
     result = ''
-    template = '\n{line!s:%s}   {expected_entry}  {arrow}' % max(map(len, lines))
+    template = u'\n{line!s:%s}   {expected_entry}  {arrow}' % max(map(len, lines))
     for expected_entry, line in zip_longest(expected_entries, lines, fillvalue=""):
         mismatch = not (expected_entry and expected_entry.check(line))
         any_mismatch |= mismatch
@@ -273,7 +273,7 @@ def assert_sample_output(module):
     with sys_tools.OutputCapturer(stdout=False,
                                   stderr=True) as output_capturer:
         module.main()
-        
+
     time = '21:10:42.298924'
     time_pattern = re.sub(r'\d', r'\\d', time)