UnicodeDecodeError on Expando dynamic properties with Unicode chars

[GoogleCodeExporter]

class MyModel(ndb.Expando):
  pass

instance = MyModel(property=u'薇薇鄭')
instance.put()

In a template somewhere: {{ instance.property }}

This works fine on the SDK, but results in a UnicodeDecodeError in production.

The workaround is to declare the dynamic property:

class MyModel(ndb.Expando):
  property = ndb.StringProperty()

...but that sorta defeats the purpose of using Expando. I've tried 
decoding/encoding it with no luck. It ``just worked'' before I ported my app to 
use ndb.

type(instance.property) returns <type 'str'> when the property is dynamic and 
<type 'unicode'> when declared. Should it be <type 'unicode'> regardless?

Version: 1.0(?) bundled with App Engine 1.6.4.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by caseydwyer on 29 Mar 2012 at 8:29