diff --git a/voc_annotation.py b/voc_annotation.py
index 3c80836c9409507edc5a32f27c0046ed8f92ae38..aad06573cb4ebb7df461256759d793fe2ad44827 100644
--- a/voc_annotation.py
+++ b/voc_annotation.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ sets=[('2007', 'train'), ('2007', 'val'), ('2007', 'test')]
 classes = ["aeroplane", "bicycle", "bird", "boat", "bottle", "bus", "car", "cat", "chair", "cow", "diningtable", "dog", "horse", "motorbike", "person", "pottedplant", "sheep", "sofa", "train", "tvmonitor"]
 
 def convert_annotation(year, image_id, list_file):
-    in_file = open('VOCdevkit/VOC%s/Annotations/%s.xml'%(year, image_id))
+    in_file = open('VOCdevkit/VOC%s/Annotations/%s.xml'%(year, image_id), encoding='utf-8')
     tree=ET.parse(in_file)
     root = tree.getroot()