deep_encode.py

def deep_encode(obj, encoding):
    if isinstance(obj, unicode):
        return obj.encode(encoding)
    elif isinstance(obj, dict):
        return {deep_encode(key, encoding): deep_encode(value, encoding) for key, value in obj.items()}
    elif isinstance(obj, list):
        return [deep_encode(item, encoding) for item in obj]
    else:
        return obj