i had create a form called registerForm.php and had set the charset to utf8

In the form, there are some textfield which the user will input some chinese characters and when submit, it will post to register.php and write the entry into the database.  It works well when i am testing it on the windows machine.

But with the testing being done on the hosting server which is Linux SuSe, the chinese character that writes to the database is not utf8 coding anymore instead it show some funny character.  Y is that so?  Btw i am using apache 2 server, mysql server 4.1 and php5.

If i may suggest changing the actual page where the registration takes place to register.php and when the form data is submitted it takes them to handel_form.php.

To assist you in your problems, please post your code here.

registerForm.php coding as follow

<?
$host='localhost';
$username='root';
$password='asd';
$connection = mysql_connect($host,$username,$password);
mysql_select_db("data");
$qualificationList = mysql_query ("SELECT * FROM admin_qualification");
?>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
   <form action="register.php" method="post" name="register_form" target="_parent" id="register_form">
      <table width="100%"  border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
        <tr bgcolor="E5CF73">
          <td colspan="2"><span class="style31">Personnal Information </span></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td width="33%" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><span class="style39">Chinese Name * </span></td>
          <td width="67%"><input name="text_chinesename" type="text" id="text_chinesename"></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><span class="style39">Surname * </span></td>
          <td><input name="text_firstname" type="text" id="text_firstname"></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><span class="style39">Last Name * </span></td>
          <td><input name="text_lastname" type="text" id="text_lastname"></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><p class="style39">Qualification * </p>            </td>
          <td><select name="list_qualification" id="list_qualification">
        <?  
          $counter = 0;
               while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($qualificationList)) {
         ?>
              <option value="<? echo $row["qualification"]; ?>"> <? echo $row["qualification"]; } ?>

          </select> <span class="style49">
      </table>
      <p align="center">
        <input name="Submit" type="submit" value="Submit" >
        &nbsp;&nbsp;
        <input name="Reset" type="reset" id="Reset" value="Reset">
</p>
      </form>


register.php coding as follow

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<?
$host = "localhost"; // hostname...in our case localhost
$username = "root"; // root is our default
$password = "asd"; // your mysql password please
$connection = mysql_connect("$host","$username","$password");

$select_success = mysql_select_db("data");

$chinesename = $_POST['text_chinesename'];
$firstname=$_POST['text_firstname'];
$lastname=$_POST['text_lastname'];
$Qualification=$_POST['list_qualification'];

if(empty($chinesename))
{
       echo"Please make sure all the required field are being entered or chosen. //chinese name \n";
    echo "Please back click to continue.";
    //echo "</p>";
      //echo "<a href='/register.html' onclick='self.history.back();'>Back</a>";
        exit;
}

if(empty($firstname))
{
        echo"Please make sure all the required field are being entered or chosen. //first name \n";
      echo "Please back click to continue.";
    //echo "</p>";
      //echo "<a href='/register.html' onclick='self.history.back();'>Back</a>";
        exit;
}

if(empty($lastname))
{
 echo"Please make sure all the required field are being entered or chosen. //last name \n";
       echo "Please back click to continue.";
    //echo "</p>";
      //echo "<a href='/register.html' onclick='self.history.back();'>Back</a>";
        exit;
}

if(empty($Qualification))
{
    echo"Please make sure all the required field are being entered or chosen. //qualification \n";
   echo "Please back click to continue.";
    exit;
}

else
{
mysql_query ("INSERT INTO user (chineseName, firstName, lastName,qualification) VALUES ('$chinesename', '$firstname', '$lastname', '$Qualification')");
echo "You have successfully register";
}
mysql_close();
?>