diff --git a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/connections.py b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/connections.py
index 0c1304a..4131977 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/connections.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/connections.py
@@ -138,8 +138,8 @@ class Connection(_mysql.connection):
         if use_unicode:
             def u(s):
                 return s.decode(self.charset)
-            conv[FIELD_TYPE.STRING] = u
-            conv[FIELD_TYPE.VAR_STRING] = u
+            conv[FIELD_TYPE.STRING].insert(-1, (None, u))
+            conv[FIELD_TYPE.VAR_STRING].insert(-1, (None, u))
             conv[FIELD_TYPE.BLOB].insert(-1, (None, u))
 
         def string_literal(obj, dummy=None):
diff --git a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/converters.py b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/converters.py
index 51182f4..da2ed46 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/converters.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/converters.py
@@ -141,6 +141,14 @@ conversions = {
         (FLAG.BINARY, char_array),
         (None, None),
     ],
+    FIELD_TYPE.STRING: [
+        (FLAG.BINARY, char_array),
+        (None, None),
+    ],
+    FIELD_TYPE.VAR_STRING: [
+        (FLAG.BINARY, char_array),
+        (None, None),
+    ],
     }
 
 try: