diff --git a/src/App/DocumentObjectPyImp.cpp b/src/App/DocumentObjectPyImp.cpp
index 03550c39b..7c74b48da 100644
--- a/src/App/DocumentObjectPyImp.cpp
+++ b/src/App/DocumentObjectPyImp.cpp
@@ -172,6 +172,20 @@ PyObject*  DocumentObjectPy::setExpression(PyObject * args)
 
         getDocumentObjectPtr()->setExpression(p, shared_expr, comment);
     }
+    else if (PyUnicode_Check(expr)) {
+        PyObject* unicode = PyUnicode_AsEncodedString(expr, "utf-8", 0);
+        if (unicode) {
+            std::string exprStr = PyString_AsString(unicode);
+            Py_DECREF(unicode);
+            boost::shared_ptr<Expression> shared_expr(ExpressionParser::parse(getDocumentObjectPtr(), exprStr.c_str()));
+
+            getDocumentObjectPtr()->setExpression(p, shared_expr, comment);
+        }
+        else {
+            // utf-8 encoding failed
+            return 0;
+        }
+    }
     else
         throw Py::TypeError("String or None expected.");
     Py_Return;
diff --git a/src/Gui/ExpressionBinding.cpp b/src/Gui/ExpressionBinding.cpp
index 4795edb9e..7c7d54f32 100644
--- a/src/Gui/ExpressionBinding.cpp
+++ b/src/Gui/ExpressionBinding.cpp
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ bool ExpressionBinding::apply(const std::string & propName)
         if (!docObj)
             throw Base::Exception("Document object not found.");
 
-        Gui::Command::doCommand(Gui::Command::Doc,"App.getDocument('%s').%s.setExpression('%s', '%s')",
+        Gui::Command::doCommand(Gui::Command::Doc,"App.getDocument('%s').%s.setExpression('%s', u'%s')",
                                 docObj->getDocument()->getName(),
                                 docObj->getNameInDocument(),
                                 path.toEscapedString().c_str(),