diff --git a/ref-filter.c b/ref-filter.c
index 8500671bc6..056d21d666 100644
--- a/ref-filter.c
+++ b/ref-filter.c
@@ -2157,25 +2157,37 @@ static int cmp_ref_sorting(struct ref_sorting *s, struct ref_array_item *a, stru
 	cmp_type cmp_type = used_atom[s->atom].type;
 	int (*cmp_fn)(const char *, const char *);
 	struct strbuf err = STRBUF_INIT;
 
 	if (get_ref_atom_value(a, s->atom, &va, &err))
 		die("%s", err.buf);
 	if (get_ref_atom_value(b, s->atom, &vb, &err))
 		die("%s", err.buf);
 	strbuf_release(&err);
 	cmp_fn = s->ignore_case ? strcasecmp : strcmp;
-	if (s->version)
+	if (s->version) {
 		cmp = versioncmp(va->s, vb->s);
-	else if (cmp_type == FIELD_STR)
-		cmp = cmp_fn(va->s, vb->s);
-	else {
+	} else if (cmp_type == FIELD_STR) {
+		const int a_detached = a->kind & FILTER_REFS_DETACHED_HEAD;
+
+		/*
+		 * When sorting by name, we should put "detached" head lines,
+		 * which are all the lines in parenthesis, before all others.
+		 * This usually is automatic, since "(" is before "refs/" and
+		 * "remotes/", but this does not hold for zh_CN, which uses
+		 * full-width parenthesis, so make the ordering explicit.
+		 */
+		if (a_detached != (b->kind & FILTER_REFS_DETACHED_HEAD))
+			cmp = a_detached ? -1 : 1;
+		else
+			cmp = cmp_fn(va->s, vb->s);
+	} else {
 		if (va->value < vb->value)
 			cmp = -1;
 		else if (va->value == vb->value)
 			cmp = cmp_fn(a->refname, b->refname);
 		else
 			cmp = 1;
 	}
 
 	return (s->reverse) ? -cmp : cmp;
 }
diff --git a/t/lib-gettext.sh b/t/lib-gettext.sh
index 2139b427ca..1adf1d4c31 100644
--- a/t/lib-gettext.sh
+++ b/t/lib-gettext.sh
@@ -25,23 +25,29 @@ then
 		p
 		q
 	}')
 	# is_IS.ISO8859-1 on Solaris and FreeBSD, is_IS.iso88591 on Debian
 	is_IS_iso_locale=$(locale -a 2>/dev/null |
 		sed -n '/^is_IS\.[iI][sS][oO]8859-*1$/{
 		p
 		q
 	}')
 
-	# Export them as an environment variable so the t0202/test.pl Perl
-	# test can use it too
-	export is_IS_locale is_IS_iso_locale
+	zh_CN_locale=$(locale -a 2>/dev/null |
+		sed -n '/^zh_CN\.[uU][tT][fF]-*8$/{
+		p
+		q
+	}')
+
+	# Export them as environment variables so other tests can use them
+	# too
+	export is_IS_locale is_IS_iso_locale zh_CN_locale
 
 	if test -n "$is_IS_locale" &&
 		test $GIT_INTERNAL_GETTEXT_SH_SCHEME != "fallthrough"
 	then
 		# Some of the tests need the reference Icelandic locale
 		test_set_prereq GETTEXT_LOCALE
 
 		# Exporting for t0202/test.pl
 		GETTEXT_LOCALE=1
 		export GETTEXT_LOCALE
@@ -53,11 +59,21 @@ then
 	if test -n "$is_IS_iso_locale" &&
 		test $GIT_INTERNAL_GETTEXT_SH_SCHEME != "fallthrough"
 	then
 		# Some of the tests need the reference Icelandic locale
 		test_set_prereq GETTEXT_ISO_LOCALE
 
 		say "# lib-gettext: Found '$is_IS_iso_locale' as an is_IS ISO-8859-1 locale"
 	else
 		say "# lib-gettext: No is_IS ISO-8859-1 locale available"
 	fi
+
+	if test -n "$zh_CN_locale" &&
+		test $GIT_INTERNAL_GETTEXT_SH_SCHEME != "fallthrough"
+	then
+		test_set_prereq GETTEXT_ZH_LOCALE
+
+		say "# lib-gettext: Found '$zh_CN_locale' as a zh_CN UTF-8 locale"
+	else
+		say "# lib-gettext: No zh_CN UTF-8 locale available"
+	fi
 fi
diff --git a/t/t3207-branch-intl.sh b/t/t3207-branch-intl.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..a46538188c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t3207-branch-intl.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+test_description='git branch internationalization tests'
+
+. ./lib-gettext.sh
+
+test_expect_success 'init repo' '
+	git init r1 &&
+	test_commit -C r1 first
+'
+
+test_expect_success GETTEXT_ZH_LOCALE 'detached head sorts before branches' '
+	# Ref sorting logic should put detached heads before the other
+	# branches, but this is not automatic when a branch name sorts
+	# lexically before "(" or the full-width "(" (Unicode codepoint FF08).
+	# The latter case is nearly guaranteed for the Chinese locale.
+
+	test_when_finished "git -C r1 checkout master" &&
+
+	git -C r1 checkout HEAD^{} -- &&
+	LC_ALL=$zh_CN_locale LC_MESSAGES=$zh_CN_locale \
+		git -C r1 branch >actual &&
+
+	head -n 1 actual >first &&
+	# The first line should be enclosed by full-width parenthesis.
+	grep "（.*）" first &&
+	grep master actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'detached head honors reverse sorting' '
+	test_when_finished "git -C r1 checkout master" &&
+
+	git -C r1 checkout HEAD^{} -- &&
+	git -C r1 branch --sort=-refname >actual &&
+
+	head -n 1 actual >first &&
+	grep master first &&
+	test_i18ngrep "HEAD detached" actual
+'
+
+test_done
