CREATE DATABASE `test_db` /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 */;

CREATE TABLE `atable` (
  `id` bigint(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `shortText` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
  `longText` blob,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
  UNIQUE KEY `id` (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 |

@Entity(name = "atable")
public class AClass{
  @Id
  @Column(name = "id", unique = true)
  @GeneratedValue
  Long id;
  @Column
  private String shortText; //also exists setter and getter, of course
  private byte[] longText;
  public void setLongText(String s){this.longText = (s!=null)?s.getBytes():null;}
  public String getLongText(){return this.longText!=null?new String(longText):null;}
}

jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/app_db?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=utf8