Search terms in other language turns out to question mark and symbols

Question

I am facing one issue while i'm creating my website. I have a search bar on my website. I tried to type and search in chinese, but the search terms on page that i entered become question mark and symbol. The url also same. I'm wondering how can make it work. Only the search terms become this. Any solution?

Updated: This is the search form that i have(this is a searchbox apply to my multisite).

<div class="search">
<form name="searchform" onsubmit="return !!(validateSearch() && dosearch());" method="get" id="searchform">
<input type="text" name="searchterms" class="terms" id="terms" placeholder="<?php if (is_search()) { ?><?php the_search_query(); ?><?php } elseif (is_home() || is_single() || is_page() || is_archive() || is_404()) { ?>What are you searching for?<?php } ?>">
<select name="sengines" class="state" id="state">
<option value="" selected>Select a State</option>
<?php $bcount = get_blog_count();
global $wpdb;
$blogs = $wpdb->get_results($wpdb->prepare("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->blogs WHERE spam = '0' AND deleted = '0' and archived = '0' and public='1'"));
if(!empty($blogs)){
    ?><?php
    foreach($blogs as $blog){
        $details = get_blog_details($blog->blog_id);
        if($details != false){
            $addr = $details->siteurl;
            $name = $details->blogname;
            if(!(($blog->blog_id == 1)&&($show_main != 1))){
                ?>
                <option value="<?php echo $addr; ?>?s="><?php echo $name;?></option>
                <?php
            }
        }
    }
    ?><?php } ?>
</select>
<input name="Search" type="submit" value="Search" class="button3">
</form>

</div><!--search-->

Javascript for the search form

function dosearch() {
var sf=document.searchform;
var submitto = sf.sengines.options[sf.sengines.selectedIndex].value + escape(sf.searchterms.value);
window.location.href = submitto;
return false;
}

function validateSearch(){
    // set some vars
    var terms = document.getElementById('terms');
    var state = document.getElementById('state');
    var msg = '';

    if(terms.value == ''){
        msg+= 'We were unable to search without a keyword! \n';
    }

    else if(terms.value.length < 3){
        msg+= 'Keyword is too short! \n';
    }

    else if(terms.value.length > 25){
            msg+= 'Keyword is too long! \n';
    }

    else if(state.value == ''){
        msg+= 'Select state to proceed! \n';
    }


    // SUbmit form part
    if(msg == ''){
        return true;
    }else{
        alert(msg);
        return false;
    }

}

Answer 1

Try using urldecode on search string and your operations on decoded string.

Also check if you are using any other encoding, utf-8, utf-16.....

Answer 2

I got the solution by myself. What i have done is to get rid of something from the js code. Then, search terms in Chinese characters is successfully displayed.

Below is what has been removed from the code.

var submitto = sf.sengines.options[sf.sengines.selectedIndex].value + escape(sf.searchterms.value);

I have removed the escape, so it works now! Sometimes, we need to spend some of time to do the research. Thank you for viewing my question and thank guys who tried to help! I appreciate!