If I use cat on a file containing UTF-8, it displays properly:% cat /tmp/sample<concept code=endangeredLanguage>  <description value=The language is endangered at the given date@en/>  <description value=La lengua est en vas de extincin en la fecha dada@es/>  <description value=O idioma est em vias de extino na data indicada@pt/>  <description value=La langue est menace  la date indique@fr/>  <description value=@ja/>  <description value=De taal is bedreigd met uitsterven op de gegeven datum@nl/></concept>But if I use less, the non-ASCII characters are escaped:% less /tmp/sample<concept code=endangeredLanguage>  <description value=The language is endangered at the given date@en/>  <description value=La lengua est<C3><A1> en v<C3><AD>as de extinci<C3><B3>n en la fecha dada@es/>  <description value=O idioma est<C3><A1> em vias de extin<C3><A7><C3><A3>o na data indicada@pt/>  <description value=La langue est menac<C3><A9>e <C3><A0> la date indiqu<C3><A9>e@fr/>  <description value=<E3><81><82><E3><82><8B><E6><99><82><E7><82><B9><E3><81><A7><E3><81><9D><E3><81><AE><E8><A8><80><E8><AA><9E><E3><81><AF><E7><B5><B6><E6><BB><85><E5><AF><B8><E5><89><8D><E3><81><A7><E3><81><82><E3><82><8B>@ja/>  <description value=De taal is bedreigd met uitsterven op de gegeven datum@nl/></concept>presumably because less is treated them as though they were binary. How can I paginate the output, but still see the proper characters?
How can I paginate a UTF-8 file and see the right characters?
cat;unicode;less
It is explained in the less FAQ Can less display non-English language characters?Less has two ways to display non-English characters. If your system uses a non-ASCII single-byte character set, you should set up your system with the correct locale settings. If your system does not support setlocale, you can set the LESSCHARSET or LESSCHARDEF environment variable to tell less what language you are using. See the section NATIONAL CHARACTER SETS in the man page for details.If your system supports the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode for non-ASCII text, as many modern systems do, you should either set your locale to something that includes the  UTF-8 or UTF8 (either uppercase or lowercase is ok), or set LESSCHARSET to utf-8. 