So in my case, I had tried changing the collation from utf8mb4_unicode_ci for mysql and had to change it to uft8_general_ci.
Then pasted :
mysqli_set_charset( $con, ‘utf8’);
right before I did the SELECT command.
This is my code for reading from db :
/*
$DB_SERVER=”db_server_name”;
$DB_USER_READER=”root”;
$DB_PASS_READER=”passw*rd”;
$DB_NAME=”db_name”;
$DB_PORT=”port number”;
$SELECT_WHAT=”`name_of_column_as_in_your_table`”;
$WHICH_TBL=”`table_name`”;
$ON_WHAT_CONDITION=”`id`=’7′”;
*/
$con = mysqli_connect($DB_SERVER, $DB_USER_READER, $DB_PASS_READER, $DB_NAME, $DB_PORT);//this is the unique connection for the selection
mysqli_set_charset( $con, ‘utf8’);
$slct_stmnt = “SELECT “.$SELECT_WHAT.” FROM “.$WHICH_TBL.” WHERE “.$ON_WHAT_CONDITION;
$slct_query = mysqli_query($con, $slct_stmnt);
if ($slct_query==true) {
//Do your stuff here . . .
}
And it worked like a charm. All the best. The above code can work with reading chineese, russian or arabic or any international language from the database’s table column holding such data.