diff --git a/docs/settings.rst b/docs/settings.rst
index 48344076..60e539d3 100644
--- a/docs/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/settings.rst
@@ -320,12 +320,6 @@ Basic settings
    A list of default Pygments settings for your reStructuredText code blocks.
    See :ref:`internal_pygments_options` for a list of supported options.
 
-.. data:: SLUGIFY_SOURCE = 'title'
-
-   Specifies where you want the slug to be automatically generated from. Can be
-   set to ``title`` to use the 'Title:' metadata tag or ``basename`` to use the
-   article's file name when creating the slug.
-
 .. data:: CACHE_CONTENT = False
 
    If ``True``, saves content in caches.  See
@@ -621,6 +615,19 @@ corresponding ``*_URL`` setting as string, while others hard-code them:
 ``'archives.html'``, ``'authors.html'``, ``'categories.html'``,
 ``'tags.html'``.
 
+
+.. data:: SLUGIFY_SOURCE = 'title'
+
+   Specifies where you want the slug to be automatically generated from. Can be
+   set to ``title`` to use the 'Title:' metadata tag or ``basename`` to use the
+   article's file name when creating the slug.
+
+.. data:: SLUGIFY_USE_UNICODE = False
+
+   Allow unicode characters in slugs. Set ``True`` to keep unicode characters
+   in auto-generated slugs. Otherwise, unicode characters will be replaced
+   with ASCII equivalents.
+
 .. data:: SLUG_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS = [
         (r'[^\\w\\s-]', ''),  # remove non-alphabetical/whitespace/'-' chars
         (r'(?u)\\A\\s*', ''),  # strip leading whitespace
diff --git a/pelican/contents.py b/pelican/contents.py
index 40d9c28e..b49e1f2e 100644
--- a/pelican/contents.py
+++ b/pelican/contents.py
@@ -92,16 +92,17 @@ class Content(object):
         if not hasattr(self, 'slug'):
             if (settings['SLUGIFY_SOURCE'] == 'title' and
                     hasattr(self, 'title')):
-                self.slug = slugify(
-                    self.title,
-                    regex_subs=settings.get('SLUG_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS', []))
+                value = self.title
             elif (settings['SLUGIFY_SOURCE'] == 'basename' and
                     source_path is not None):
-                basename = os.path.basename(
-                    os.path.splitext(source_path)[0])
+                value = os.path.basename(os.path.splitext(source_path)[0])
+            else:
+                value = None
+            if value is not None:
                 self.slug = slugify(
-                    basename,
-                    regex_subs=settings.get('SLUG_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS', []))
+                    value,
+                    regex_subs=settings.get('SLUG_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS', []),
+                    use_unicode=settings['SLUGIFY_USE_UNICODE'])
 
         self.source_path = source_path
         self.relative_source_path = self.get_relative_source_path()
diff --git a/pelican/settings.py b/pelican/settings.py
index 77aea059..0e0397c9 100644
--- a/pelican/settings.py
+++ b/pelican/settings.py
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
     ],
     'INTRASITE_LINK_REGEX': '[{|](?P<what>.*?)[|}]',
     'SLUGIFY_SOURCE': 'title',
+    'SLUGIFY_USE_UNICODE': False,
     'CACHE_CONTENT': False,
     'CONTENT_CACHING_LAYER': 'reader',
     'CACHE_PATH': 'cache',
diff --git a/pelican/tests/test_contents.py b/pelican/tests/test_contents.py
index 08d4eb73..2a377e75 100644
--- a/pelican/tests/test_contents.py
+++ b/pelican/tests/test_contents.py
@@ -135,6 +135,17 @@ class TestPage(LoggedTestCase):
         page = Page(**page_kwargs)
         self.assertEqual(page.slug, 'foo')
 
+        # test slug from unicode title
+        # slug doesn't use unicode
+        settings['SLUGIFY_SOURCE'] = "title"
+        page_kwargs['metadata']['title'] = '指導書'
+        page = Page(**page_kwargs)
+        self.assertEqual(page.slug, 'zhi-dao-shu')
+        # slug uses unicode
+        settings['SLUGIFY_USE_UNICODE'] = True
+        page = Page(**page_kwargs)
+        self.assertEqual(page.slug, '指導書')
+
     def test_defaultlang(self):
         # If no lang is given, default to the default one.
         page = Page(**self.page_kwargs)
diff --git a/pelican/urlwrappers.py b/pelican/urlwrappers.py
index cc276b3f..86f9ef32 100644
--- a/pelican/urlwrappers.py
+++ b/pelican/urlwrappers.py
@@ -34,15 +34,14 @@ class URLWrapper(object):
         if self._slug is None:
             class_key = '{}_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS'.format(
                 self.__class__.__name__.upper())
-            if class_key in self.settings:
-                self._slug = slugify(
-                    self.name,
-                    regex_subs=self.settings[class_key])
-            else:
-                self._slug = slugify(
-                    self.name,
-                    regex_subs=self.settings.get(
-                        'SLUG_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS', []))
+            regex_subs = self.settings.get(
+                class_key,
+                self.settings.get('SLUG_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS', []))
+            self._slug = slugify(
+                self.name,
+                regex_subs=regex_subs,
+                use_unicode=self.settings.get('SLUGIFY_USE_UNICODE', False)
+            )
         return self._slug
 
     @slug.setter
@@ -61,8 +60,13 @@ class URLWrapper(object):
         return hash(self.slug)
 
     def _normalize_key(self, key):
-        subs = self.settings.get('SLUG_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS', [])
-        return slugify(key, regex_subs=subs)
+        class_key = '{}_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS'.format(
+            self.__class__.__name__.upper())
+        regex_subs = self.settings.get(
+            class_key,
+            self.settings.get('SLUG_REGEX_SUBSTITUTIONS', []))
+        use_unicode = self.settings.get('SLUGIFY_USE_UNICODE', False)
+        return slugify(key, regex_subs=regex_subs, use_unicode=use_unicode)
 
     def __eq__(self, other):
         if isinstance(other, self.__class__):