Django & MySQL & custom unicode class = FAIL

test.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
from django.views.generic import View
from django.http import HttpResponse
from .models import MyFirstModel, MySecondModel

class CustomUnicode(unicode):
    pass

class TestView(View):
    
    def get(self, request, attr, *args, **kwargs):
        spam  = Spam.objects.get(id=1)
        
        # This works
        hello = 'Hellö'
        spam.a_text_field = hello
        spam.save()
        
        # This also works.
        hello = unicode('Hellö')
        spam.a_text_field = hello
        spam.save()
        
        # This will throw an UnicodeError!
        hello = CustomUnicode('Hellö')
        spam.a_text_field = hello
        spam.save()

traceback.txt

Traceback:

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/exception.py" in inner
  39.             response = get_response(request)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py" in _get_response
  187.                 response = self.process_exception_by_middleware(e, request)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py" in _get_response
  185.                 response = wrapped_callback(request, *callback_args, **callback_kwargs)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/views/generic/base.py" in view
  68.             return self.dispatch(request, *args, **kwargs)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/views/generic/base.py" in dispatch
  88.         return handler(request, *args, **kwargs)

File "/media/psf/Public/meh/app/views.py" in get
  56.         spam.save()

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/models/base.py" in save
  796.                        force_update=force_update, update_fields=update_fields)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/models/base.py" in save_base
  824.             updated = self._save_table(raw, cls, force_insert, force_update, using, update_fields)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/models/base.py" in _save_table
  889.                                       forced_update)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/models/base.py" in _do_update
  939.         return filtered._update(values) > 0

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/models/query.py" in _update
  654.         return query.get_compiler(self.db).execute_sql(CURSOR)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py" in execute_sql
  1148.         cursor = super(SQLUpdateCompiler, self).execute_sql(result_type)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py" in execute_sql
  835.             cursor.execute(sql, params)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py" in execute
  79.             return super(CursorDebugWrapper, self).execute(sql, params)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py" in execute
  64.                 return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py" in execute
  110.             return self.cursor.execute(query, args)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py" in execute
  187.                 query = query % tuple([db.literal(item) for item in args])

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py" in literal
  278.         return self.escape(o, self.encoders)

File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py" in string_literal
  203.                 return db.string_literal(obj)

Exception Type: UnicodeEncodeError at /app/test/value1/
Exception Value: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe4' in position 1: ordinal not in range(128)