>>> test1 = u'"Hello," heu200b saidu200fu200e. "Iu200b amu200b nine years oldxe2"' >>> test2 = '"Hello," he\u200b said\u200f\u200e. "I\u200b am\u200b nine years old"' >>> test2.decode('unicode-escape') u'"Hello," heu200b saidu200fu200e. "Iu200b amu200b nine years old"' >>> print test2.decode('unicode-escape') "Hello," he said. "I am nine years old"