The Chinese resource files are already utf-8, but I suspect lots of other files are in obscure character sets, which complicates patch processing and display.
Just how silly would it be for us to bite the bullet and set all source files to utf-8? We'd need to recode a bunch of files once, but after that, there'd be less confusion about how to view and edit various resource files.
Not saying we should up and do it, just throwing out an idea for discussion...