#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use DBI;

my $c = "ᎤࢣࣘဃလͶ᠓ᠴᡠᣲ";

my $dbh = DBI->connect(
        "DBI:mysql:testdb;host=localhost",
        "test", "test",
        {'RaiseError' => 1}
);

$dbh->do("insert into test (text) values ('$c')");

<?php
# PHP
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=testdb', 'test', 'test');

# $c = pack("CC", 195, 164); # ä
$c = "ᎤࢣࣘဃလͶ᠓ᠴᡠᣲ";

$sql = "insert into test (text) values('$c')";

$sth = $dbh->query($sql);