Can MySQL automatically specify `_utf8` for inserts to UTF-8 columns?

Question

I have a table like this, where one column is latin1, the other is UTF-8:

Create Table: CREATE TABLE `names` (
  `name_english` varchar(255) character NOT NULL,
  `name_chinese` varchar(255) character set utf8 default NULL,
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1

When I do an insert, I have to type _utf8 before values being inserted into UTF-8 columns:

insert into names (name_english = "hooey", name_chinese = _utf8 "鬼佬");

However, since MySQL should know that name_chinese is a UTF-8 column, it should be able to know to use _utf8 automatically.

Is there any way to tell MySQL to use _utf8 automatically, so when I'm programatically making prepared statements, I don't have to worry about including it with the right parameters?

Answer 1

why not to use UTF-8 for the whole table?