diff --git a/addons/website/tests/test_views.py b/addons/website/tests/test_views.py
index 6eb5040f539..00c52f40a8e 100644
--- a/addons/website/tests/test_views.py
+++ b/addons/website/tests/test_views.py
@@ -191,29 +191,29 @@ class TestViewSaving(common.TransactionCase):
     def test_save_escaped_text(self):
         """ Test saving html special chars in text nodes """
         view = self.env['ir.ui.view'].create({
-            'arch': '<t t-name="dummy"><p><h1>hello world</h1></p></t>',
+            'arch': u'<t t-name="dummy"><p><h1>hello world</h1></p></t>',
             'type': 'qweb'
         })
         # script and style text nodes should not escaped client side
-        replacement = '<script>1 && "hello & world"</script>'
+        replacement = u'<script>1 && "hello & world"</script>'
         view.save(replacement, xpath='/t/p/h1')
         self.assertIn(
-            replacement.replace('&', '&amp;'),
+            replacement.replace(u'&', u'&amp;'),
             view.arch,
             'inline script should be escaped server side'
         )
         self.assertIn(
             replacement,
-            view.render(),
+            view.render().decode('utf-8'),
             'inline script should not be escaped when rendering'
         )
         # common text nodes should be be escaped client side
-        replacement = 'world &amp;amp; &amp;lt;b&amp;gt;cie'
+        replacement = u'world &amp;amp; &amp;lt;b&amp;gt;cie'
         view.save(replacement, xpath='/t/p')
         self.assertIn(replacement, view.arch, 'common text node should not be escaped server side')
         self.assertIn(
             replacement,
-            view.render().replace('&', '&amp;'),
+            view.render().decode('utf-8').replace(u'&', u'&amp;'),
             'text node characters wrongly unescaped when rendering'
         )
 
diff --git a/odoo/addons/base/tests/test_qweb.py b/odoo/addons/base/tests/test_qweb.py
index 088949b3bd7..cfe65a00f11 100644
--- a/odoo/addons/base/tests/test_qweb.py
+++ b/odoo/addons/base/tests/test_qweb.py
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ class FileSystemLoader(object):
             if node.get('t-name') == name:
                 root = etree.Element('templates')
                 root.append(deepcopy(node))
-                arch = etree.tostring(root, encoding='utf-8')
+                arch = etree.tostring(root, encoding='unicode')
                 return arch
 
 
diff --git a/odoo/addons/test_converter/tests/test_html.py b/odoo/addons/test_converter/tests/test_html.py
index f03bbe8d710..e915785e333 100644
--- a/odoo/addons/test_converter/tests/test_html.py
+++ b/odoo/addons/test_converter/tests/test_html.py
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ class TestCurrencyExport(TestExport):
             converted, u'<span class="oe_currency_value">\u20110.12</span>'
                        u'\N{NO-BREAK SPACE}{symbol}'.format(
                 obj=obj,
-                symbol=currency.symbol.encode('utf-8')
+                symbol=currency.symbol
             ),)
 
     def test_currency_pre(self):
@@ -136,9 +136,9 @@ class TestCurrencyExport(TestExport):
         self.assertEqual(
             converted,
                       u'{symbol}\N{NO-BREAK SPACE}'
-                      '<span class="oe_currency_value">0.12</span>'.format(
+                      u'<span class="oe_currency_value">0.12</span>'.format(
                 obj=obj,
-                symbol=currency.symbol.encode('utf-8')
+                symbol=currency.symbol
             ),)
 
     def test_currency_precision(self):
@@ -151,10 +151,10 @@ class TestCurrencyExport(TestExport):
 
         self.assertEqual(
             converted,
-                      '<span class="oe_currency_value">0.12</span>'
+                      u'<span class="oe_currency_value">0.12</span>'
                       u'\N{NO-BREAK SPACE}{symbol}'.format(
                 obj=obj,
-                symbol=currency.symbol.encode('utf-8')
+                symbol=currency.symbol
             ),)
 
 
@@ -217,9 +217,7 @@ class TestBinaryExport(TestBasicExport):
         value = converter.value_to_html(encoded_content, {})
 
         self.assertEqual(
-            value, b'<img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,%s">' % (
-                encoded_content
-            ))
+            value, u'<img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,%s">' % encoded_content.decode('ascii'))
 
         with open(os.path.join(directory, 'test_vectors', 'pdf'), 'rb') as f:
             content = f.read()