diff --git a/python/pyspark/context.py b/python/pyspark/context.py
index 4001ecab5ea00..833a85469e377 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/context.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/context.py
@@ -314,12 +314,16 @@ def pickleFile(self, name, minPartitions=None):
         return RDD(self._jsc.objectFile(name, minPartitions), self,
                    BatchedSerializer(PickleSerializer()))
 
-    def textFile(self, name, minPartitions=None):
+    def textFile(self, name, minPartitions=None, use_unicode=True):
         """
         Read a text file from HDFS, a local file system (available on all
         nodes), or any Hadoop-supported file system URI, and return it as an
         RDD of Strings.
 
+        If use_unicode is False, the strings will be kept as `str` (encoding
+        as `utf-8`), which is faster and smaller than unicode. (Added in
+        Spark 1.2)
+
         >>> path = os.path.join(tempdir, "sample-text.txt")
         >>> with open(path, "w") as testFile:
         ...    testFile.write("Hello world!")
@@ -329,9 +333,9 @@ def textFile(self, name, minPartitions=None):
         """
         minPartitions = minPartitions or min(self.defaultParallelism, 2)
         return RDD(self._jsc.textFile(name, minPartitions), self,
-                   UTF8Deserializer())
+                   UTF8Deserializer(use_unicode))
 
-    def wholeTextFiles(self, path, minPartitions=None):
+    def wholeTextFiles(self, path, minPartitions=None, use_unicode=True):
         """
         Read a directory of text files from HDFS, a local file system
         (available on all nodes), or any  Hadoop-supported file system
@@ -339,6 +343,10 @@ def wholeTextFiles(self, path, minPartitions=None):
         key-value pair, where the key is the path of each file, the
         value is the content of each file.
 
+        If use_unicode is False, the strings will be kept as `str` (encoding
+        as `utf-8`), which is faster and smaller than unicode. (Added in
+        Spark 1.2)
+
         For example, if you have the following files::
 
           hdfs://a-hdfs-path/part-00000
@@ -369,7 +377,7 @@ def wholeTextFiles(self, path, minPartitions=None):
         """
         minPartitions = minPartitions or self.defaultMinPartitions
         return RDD(self._jsc.wholeTextFiles(path, minPartitions), self,
-                   PairDeserializer(UTF8Deserializer(), UTF8Deserializer()))
+                   PairDeserializer(UTF8Deserializer(use_unicode), UTF8Deserializer(use_unicode)))
 
     def _dictToJavaMap(self, d):
         jm = self._jvm.java.util.HashMap()
diff --git a/python/pyspark/serializers.py b/python/pyspark/serializers.py
index df90cafb245bf..e99fb926b5212 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/serializers.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/serializers.py
@@ -409,18 +409,22 @@ class UTF8Deserializer(Serializer):
     Deserializes streams written by String.getBytes.
     """
 
+    def __init__(self, use_unicode=False):
+        self.use_unicode = use_unicode
+
     def loads(self, stream):
         length = read_int(stream)
-        return stream.read(length).decode('utf8')
+        s = stream.read(length)
+        return s.decode("utf-8") if self.use_unicode else s
 
     def load_stream(self, stream):
-        while True:
-            try:
+        try:
+            while True:
                 yield self.loads(stream)
-            except struct.error:
-                return
-            except EOFError:
-                return
+        except struct.error:
+            return
+        except EOFError:
+            return
 
 
 def read_long(stream):