diff --git a/commitizen/config/yaml_config.py b/commitizen/config/yaml_config.py
index 1e9610e17..9093c919f 100644
--- a/commitizen/config/yaml_config.py
+++ b/commitizen/config/yaml_config.py
@@ -27,10 +27,11 @@ def __init__(self, *, data: bytes | str, path: Path) -> None:
         self._parse_setting(data)
 
     def init_empty_config_content(self) -> None:
-        with smart_open(
-            self.path, "a", encoding=self._settings["encoding"]
-        ) as json_file:
-            yaml.dump({"commitizen": {}}, json_file, explicit_start=True)
+        # Write YAML as UTF-8; YAML 1.2 requires UTF-8/16/32.
+        with smart_open(self.path, "a", encoding="utf-8") as yaml_file:
+            yaml.dump(
+                {"commitizen": {}}, yaml_file, explicit_start=True, allow_unicode=True
+            )
 
     def contains_commitizen_section(self) -> bool:
         with self.path.open("rb") as yaml_file:
@@ -60,9 +61,8 @@ def set_key(self, key: str, value: object) -> Self:
             config_doc = yaml.load(yaml_file, Loader=yaml.FullLoader)
 
         config_doc["commitizen"][key] = value
-        with smart_open(
-            self.path, "w", encoding=self._settings["encoding"]
-        ) as yaml_file:
-            yaml.dump(config_doc, yaml_file, explicit_start=True)
+        # Write YAML as UTF-8; YAML 1.2 requires UTF-8/16/32.
+        with smart_open(self.path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as yaml_file:
+            yaml.dump(config_doc, yaml_file, explicit_start=True, allow_unicode=True)
 
         return self
diff --git a/tests/test_conf.py b/tests/test_conf.py
index c004e96e1..a348e511a 100644
--- a/tests/test_conf.py
+++ b/tests/test_conf.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 import json
 import os
+import re
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any
 
@@ -497,3 +498,39 @@ def test_init_with_invalid_content(self, tmp_path, config_file):
         with pytest.raises(InvalidConfigurationError) as excinfo:
             YAMLConfig(data=existing_content, path=path)
         assert config_file in str(excinfo.value)
+
+    def test_set_key_preserves_unicode(self, tmp_path, config_file):
+        """Regression test for #1164: emoji and other non-ASCII characters
+        must be preserved verbatim, not escaped to ``\\Uxxxx`` sequences."""
+        path = tmp_path / "commitizen" / config_file
+        path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        path.write_text(
+            "commitizen:\n"
+            '  bump_message: "🚀 chore: bump $current_version to $new_version"\n',
+            encoding="utf-8",
+        )
+
+        yaml_config = YAMLConfig(data=path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"), path=path)
+        yaml_config.set_key("version", "0.1.1")
+
+        rewritten = path.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+        assert "🚀" in rewritten
+        assert not re.search(r"\\U[0-9a-fA-F]{8}", rewritten)
+
+    def test_init_empty_config_content_passes_allow_unicode(
+        self, tmp_path, config_file, mocker
+    ):
+        """``init_empty_config_content`` must call ``yaml.dump`` with
+        ``allow_unicode=True`` so that any non-ASCII default content (for
+        future maintainers) is written verbatim. The current default
+        (``{"commitizen": {}}``) is ASCII-only, so this asserts the
+        keyword is passed rather than its observable behaviour."""
+        path = tmp_path / "commitizen" / config_file
+        path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        dump_spy = mocker.spy(yaml, "dump")
+
+        yaml_config = YAMLConfig(data="{}", path=path)
+        yaml_config.init_empty_config_content()
+
+        dump_spy.assert_called_once()
+        assert dump_spy.call_args.kwargs.get("allow_unicode") is True