diff --git a/parson.c b/parson.c
index 38617e6..6e01a87 100644
--- a/parson.c
+++ b/parson.c
@@ -331,8 +331,7 @@ static const char * get_processed_string(const char **string) {
                     return NULL;
                     break;
             }
-        } else if (iscntrl((unsigned char)current_char) &&
-                   ((unsigned char)current_char != 0x7F)) { /* no control characters allowed (except DEL)*/
+        } else if ((unsigned char)current_char < 0x20) { /* 0x00-0x19 are invalid characters for json string (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt) */
             parson_free(output);
             return NULL;
         }
diff --git a/tests.c b/tests.c
index 10ec111..2046ec2 100644
--- a/tests.c
+++ b/tests.c
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ void test_suite_2(void) {
     object = json_value_get_object(root_value);
     TEST(STREQ(json_object_get_string(object, "string"), "lorem ipsum"));
     TEST(STREQ(json_object_get_string(object, "utf string"), "lorem ipsum"));
+    TEST(STREQ(json_object_get_string(object, "utf-8 string"), "あいうえお"));
     TEST(json_object_get_number(object, "positive one") == 1.0);
     TEST(json_object_get_number(object, "negative one") == -1.0);
     TEST(json_object_get_number(object, "hard to parse number") == -0.000314);
diff --git a/tests/test_2.txt b/tests/test_2.txt
index 501fead..279d477 100644
--- a/tests/test_2.txt
+++ b/tests/test_2.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 {
 	"string" : "lorem ipsum",
 	"utf string" : "\u006corem\u0020ipsum",
+	"utf-8 string": "あいうえお",
 	"positive one" : 1,
 	"negative one" : -1,
 	"pi" : 3.14,