diff --git a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/vcopier_test.go b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/vcopier_test.go
index a7e4794ba76..dcb5616008d 100644
--- a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/vcopier_test.go
+++ b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletmanager/vreplication/vcopier_test.go
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ func testPlayerCopyVarcharPKCaseInsensitive(t *testing.T) {
 	defer func() { waitRetryTime = savedWaitRetryTime }()
 
 	execStatements(t, []string{
-		"create table src(idc varchar(20), val int, primary key(idc)) character set utf8mb3", // Use utf8mb3 to get a consistent default collation across MySQL versions
+		"create table src(idc varchar(20), val int, primary key(idc)) character set utf8mb4 collate utf8mb4_general_ci", // Use general_ci so that we have the same behavior across 5.7 and 8.0
 		"insert into src values('a', 1), ('c', 2)",
 		fmt.Sprintf("create table %s.dst(idc varchar(20), val int, primary key(idc))", vrepldb),
 	})
@@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ func testPlayerCopyVarcharPKCaseInsensitive(t *testing.T) {
 		"/update _vt.vreplication set state='Copying'",
 		// Copy mode.
 		"insert into dst(idc,val) values ('a',1)",
-		`/insert into _vt.copy_state \(lastpk, vrepl_id, table_name\) values \(_binary'fields:{name:"idc" type:VARCHAR charset:33 flags:20483} rows:{lengths:1 values:"a"}'.*`,
+		`/insert into _vt.copy_state \(lastpk, vrepl_id, table_name\) values \(_binary'fields:{name:"idc" type:VARCHAR charset:45 flags:20483} rows:{lengths:1 values:"a"}'.*`,
 		// Copy-catchup mode.
 		`/insert into dst\(idc,val\) select 'B', 3 from dual where \( .* 'B' COLLATE .* \) <= \( .* 'a' COLLATE .* \)`,
 	).Then(func(expect qh.ExpectationSequencer) qh.ExpectationSequencer {
@@ -292,11 +292,11 @@ func testPlayerCopyVarcharPKCaseInsensitive(t *testing.T) {
 		// upd1 := expect.
 		upd1 := expect.Then(qh.Eventually(
 			"insert into dst(idc,val) values ('B',3)",
-			`/insert into _vt.copy_state \(lastpk, vrepl_id, table_name\) values \(_binary'fields:{name:"idc" type:VARCHAR charset:33 flags:20483} rows:{lengths:1 values:"B"}'.*`,
+			`/insert into _vt.copy_state \(lastpk, vrepl_id, table_name\) values \(_binary'fields:{name:"idc" type:VARCHAR charset:45 flags:20483} rows:{lengths:1 values:"B"}'.*`,
 		))
 		upd2 := expect.Then(qh.Eventually(
 			"insert into dst(idc,val) values ('c',2)",
-			`/insert into _vt.copy_state \(lastpk, vrepl_id, table_name\) values \(_binary'fields:{name:"idc" type:VARCHAR charset:33 flags:20483} rows:{lengths:1 values:"c"}'.*`,
+			`/insert into _vt.copy_state \(lastpk, vrepl_id, table_name\) values \(_binary'fields:{name:"idc" type:VARCHAR charset:45 flags:20483} rows:{lengths:1 values:"c"}'.*`,
 		))
 		upd1.Then(upd2.Eventually())
 		return upd2
diff --git a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/vstreamer/rowstreamer_test.go b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/vstreamer/rowstreamer_test.go
index a5ea8270a7d..022622795f2 100644
--- a/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/vstreamer/rowstreamer_test.go
+++ b/go/vt/vttablet/tabletserver/vstreamer/rowstreamer_test.go
@@ -389,7 +389,7 @@ func TestStreamRowsFilterVarChar(t *testing.T) {
 	defer env.SetVSchema("{}")
 
 	execStatements(t, []string{
-		"create table t1(id1 int, val varchar(128), primary key(id1))",
+		"create table t1(id1 int, val varchar(128), primary key(id1)) character set utf8mb4 collate utf8mb4_general_ci", // Use general_ci so that we have the same behavior across 5.7 and 8.0
 		"insert into t1 values (1,'kepler'), (2, 'newton'), (3, 'newton'), (4, 'kepler'), (5, 'newton'), (6, 'kepler')",
 	})
 
@@ -398,7 +398,7 @@ func TestStreamRowsFilterVarChar(t *testing.T) {
 	})
 
 	wantStream := []string{
-		`fields:{name:"id1" type:INT32 table:"t1" org_table:"t1" database:"vttest" org_name:"id1" column_length:11 charset:63 column_type:"int(11)"} fields:{name:"val" type:VARCHAR table:"t1" org_table:"t1" database:"vttest" org_name:"val" column_length:512 charset:255 column_type:"varchar(128)"} pkfields:{name:"id1" type:INT32 charset:63}`,
+		`fields:{name:"id1" type:INT32 table:"t1" org_table:"t1" database:"vttest" org_name:"id1" column_length:11 charset:63 column_type:"int(11)"} fields:{name:"val" type:VARCHAR table:"t1" org_table:"t1" database:"vttest" org_name:"val" column_length:512 charset:45 column_type:"varchar(128)"} pkfields:{name:"id1" type:INT32 charset:63}`,
 		`rows:{lengths:1 lengths:6 values:"2newton"} rows:{lengths:1 lengths:6 values:"3newton"} rows:{lengths:1 lengths:6 values:"5newton"} lastpk:{lengths:1 values:"5"}`,
 	}
 	wantQuery := "select /*+ MAX_EXECUTION_TIME(3600000) */ id1, val from t1 where val = 'newton' order by id1"