diff --git a/spacy/lang/zh/__init__.py b/spacy/lang/zh/__init__.py
index 6246fa7ea..a2a2dcacd 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/zh/__init__.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/zh/__init__.py
@@ -1,12 +1,19 @@
 # coding: utf8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
+from ...attrs import LANG
 from ...language import Language
 from ...tokens import Doc
 
 
+class ChineseDefaults(Language.Defaults):
+    lex_attr_getters = dict(Language.Defaults.lex_attr_getters)
+    lex_attr_getters[LANG] = lambda text: 'zh'  # for pickling
+
+
 class Chinese(Language):
     lang = 'zh'
+    Defaults = ChineseDefaults  # override defaults
 
     def make_doc(self, text):
         try: