SQL Server database field to handle korean and chinese characters
NVARCHAR is the proper type for this - it stores everything in a 2-byte Unicode.
What you need to pay attention to is when working with NVARCHAR fields in SQL Server Management Studio - you absolutely must use the N'....' prefix in that case!
If you use this:
INSERT INTO dbo.YourTable(NVarcharColumn) VALUES('Some Chinese text here')then SSMS will temporarily convert the string literal you specify into VARCHAR (non-Unicode!) and thus you'll loose any Unicode-encoded characters.
However, if you use:
INSERT INTO dbo.YourTable(NVarcharColumn) VALUES(N'Some Chinese text here')(note the N prefix before the string literal!) then SSMS will handle everything as Unicode all the time, and your Chinese or Korean (or other) special characters should be preserved.