diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 97d8dc8a..e57c6938 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ jc changelog
 20220426 v1.18.8
 - Fix UnicodeEncodeError on some systems where LANG=C is set and unicode
   characters are in the output
+- Update history parser: do not drop non-ASCII characters if the system
+  is configured for UTF-8 encoding
+- Enhance "magic syntax" to always use UTF-8 encoding
 
 20220425 v1.18.7
 - Add git log command parser
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5b3ecf61..2a061f56 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -425,6 +425,9 @@ or by exporting to the environment before running commands:
 $ export LANG=C
 ```
 
+On some older systems UTF-8 output will be downgraded to ASCII with `\\u`
+escape sequences if the `C` locale does not support UTF-8 encoding.
+
 #### Timezones
 
 Some parsers have calculated epoch timestamp fields added to the output. Unless
diff --git a/docs/utils.md b/docs/utils.md
index b400bcbd..5677d42e 100644
--- a/docs/utils.md
+++ b/docs/utils.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # Table of Contents
 
 * [jc.utils](#jc.utils)
+  * [asciify](#jc.utils.asciify)
   * [warning\_message](#jc.utils.warning_message)
   * [error\_message](#jc.utils.error_message)
   * [compatibility](#jc.utils.compatibility)
@@ -18,6 +19,17 @@
 
 jc - JSON Convert utils
 
+<a id="jc.utils.asciify"></a>
+
+### asciify
+
+```python
+def asciify(string: str) -> str
+```
+
+Return a string downgraded from Unicode to ASCII with some simple
+conversions.
+
 <a id="jc.utils.warning_message"></a>
 
 ### warning\_message
diff --git a/man/jc.1 b/man/jc.1
index ff873a10..e408b763 100644
--- a/man/jc.1
+++ b/man/jc.1
@@ -686,6 +686,8 @@ or by exporting to the environment before running commands:
 $ export LANG=C
 .RE
 
+On some older systems UTF-8 output will be downgraded to ASCII with `\\u` escape sequences if the \fBC\fP locale does not support UTF-8 encoding.
+
 \fBTimezones:\fP Some parsers have calculated epoch timestamp fields added to the output. Unless a timestamp field name has a \fB_utc\fP suffix it is considered naive. (i.e. based on the local timezone of the system the \fBjc\fP parser was run on).
 
 If a UTC timezone can be detected in the text of the command output, the timestamp will be timezone aware and have a \fB_utc\fP suffix on the key name. (e.g. \fBepoch_utc\fP) No other timezones are supported for aware timestamps.
diff --git a/templates/manpage_template b/templates/manpage_template
index 43c6b585..c61ad7e1 100644
--- a/templates/manpage_template
+++ b/templates/manpage_template
@@ -201,6 +201,8 @@ or by exporting to the environment before running commands:
 $ export LANG=C
 .RE
 
+On some older systems UTF-8 output will be downgraded to ASCII with `\\u` escape sequences if the \fBC\fP locale does not support UTF-8 encoding.
+
 \fBTimezones:\fP Some parsers have calculated epoch timestamp fields added to the output. Unless a timestamp field name has a \fB_utc\fP suffix it is considered naive. (i.e. based on the local timezone of the system the \fBjc\fP parser was run on).
 
 If a UTC timezone can be detected in the text of the command output, the timestamp will be timezone aware and have a \fB_utc\fP suffix on the key name. (e.g. \fBepoch_utc\fP) No other timezones are supported for aware timestamps.
diff --git a/templates/readme_template b/templates/readme_template
index a5df7a6d..3176712e 100644
--- a/templates/readme_template
+++ b/templates/readme_template
@@ -328,6 +328,9 @@ or by exporting to the environment before running commands:
 $ export LANG=C
 ```
 
+On some older systems UTF-8 output will be downgraded to ASCII with `\\u`
+escape sequences if the `C` locale does not support UTF-8 encoding.
+
 #### Timezones
 
 Some parsers have calculated epoch timestamp fields added to the output. Unless