Convert escaped Unicode character back to actual character
try str = org.apache.commons.lang3.StringEscapeUtils.unescapeJava(str); from Apache Commons Lang
utf8-decode
How to convert these strange characters? (ë, Ã, ì, ù, Ã)
These are utf-8 encoded characters. Use utf8_decode() to convert them to normal ISO-8859-1 characters.
Decode UTF-8 with Javascript
To answer the original question: here is how you decode utf-8 in javascript: http://ecmanaut.blogspot.ca/2006/07/encoding-decoding-utf8-in-javascript.html Specifically, function encode_utf8(s) { return unescape(encodeURIComponent(s)); } function decode_utf8(s) { return decodeURIComponent(escape(s)); } We have been using this in our production code for 6 years, and it has worked flawlessly. Note, however, that escape() and unescape() are deprecated. See this.