diff --git a/chatterbot/adapters/logic/base_match.py b/chatterbot/adapters/logic/base_match.py
index 763e71bfc..fe5edf159 100644
--- a/chatterbot/adapters/logic/base_match.py
+++ b/chatterbot/adapters/logic/base_match.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 from .logic_adapter import LogicAdapter
 from .mixins import TieBreaking
 
diff --git a/chatterbot/adapters/logic/closest_match.py b/chatterbot/adapters/logic/closest_match.py
index 07d87eaa9..bd28fe527 100644
--- a/chatterbot/adapters/logic/closest_match.py
+++ b/chatterbot/adapters/logic/closest_match.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 from .base_match import BaseMatchAdapter
 from fuzzywuzzy import process
 
@@ -32,8 +33,14 @@ def get(self, input_statement):
             text_of_all_statements.append(statement.text)
 
         # Check if an exact match exists
-        if input_statement.text in text_of_all_statements:
-            return 1, input_statement
+
+        # Decode unicode strings in python 2.x
+        if sys.version < '3':
+            if input_statement.text.decode('utf-8') in text_of_all_statements:
+                return 1, input_statement
+        else:
+            if input_statement.text in text_of_all_statements:
+                return 1, input_statement
 
         # Get the closest matching statement from the database
         closest_match, confidence = process.extract(
diff --git a/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py b/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
index 0fb4d2f2a..249d31a44 100644
--- a/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
+++ b/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+
 class Statement(object):
     """
     A statement represents a single spoken entity, sentence or
diff --git a/chatterbot/corpus/corpus.py b/chatterbot/corpus/corpus.py
index 7745ad427..5bebc0091 100644
--- a/chatterbot/corpus/corpus.py
+++ b/chatterbot/corpus/corpus.py
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ def load_corpus(self, dotted_path):
         """
         Return the data contained within a specified corpus.
         """
-
         corpus_path = self.get_file_path(dotted_path)
 
         corpora = []
diff --git a/tests/conversation_tests/test_statements.py b/tests/conversation_tests/test_statements.py
index 8ad22fb9a..9e8d0b515 100644
--- a/tests/conversation_tests/test_statements.py
+++ b/tests/conversation_tests/test_statements.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 from unittest import TestCase
 from chatterbot.conversation import Statement, Response
 
@@ -7,7 +8,7 @@ class StatementTests(TestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         self.statement = Statement("A test statement.")
 
-    def test_equality(self):
+    def test_list_equality(self):
         """
         It should be possible to check if a statement
         exists in the list of statements that another
@@ -17,6 +18,16 @@ def test_equality(self):
         self.assertEqual(len(self.statement.in_response_to), 1)
         self.assertIn(Response("Yo"), self.statement.in_response_to)
 
+    def test_list_equality_unicode(self):
+        """
+        Test that it is possible to check if a statement
+        is in a list of other statements when the
+        statements text is unicode.
+        """
+        statements = [Statement("Hello"), Statement("我很好太感谢")]
+        statement = Statement("我很好太感谢")
+        self.assertIn(statement, statements)
+
     def test_update_response_list_new(self):
         self.statement.add_response(Response("Hello"))
         self.assertTrue(len(self.statement.in_response_to), 1)