diff --git a/lib/child_process.js b/lib/child_process.js
index 353bfe546b..5f983c9d74 100644
--- a/lib/child_process.js
+++ b/lib/child_process.js
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ function setupChannel(target, fd) {
   target._channel.readable = true;
 
   target._channel.resume();
-  target._channel.setEncoding('ascii');
+  target._channel.setEncoding('utf8');
 
   var buffer = '';
   target._channel.on('data', function(d) {