diff --git a/tests/run/builtinnames.pyx b/tests/run/builtinnames.pyx
index 3b8d6c8b23b49e26051bde3f080e0c3ab1afd1dd..aba3ac870ac6704229e582b374c5313bece43906 100644
--- a/tests/run/builtinnames.pyx
+++ b/tests/run/builtinnames.pyx
@@ -10,12 +10,12 @@ rangeabc
 
 
 def test_file_py(file):
-    assert isinstance(file, str), \
+    assert isinstance(file, (str, unicode)), \
         u"not a string, found '%s' instead" % file.__class__.__name__
     return file
 
 cdef test_file_c(file):
-    assert isinstance(file, str), \
+    assert isinstance(file, (str, unicode)), \
         u"not a string, found '%s' instead" % file.__class__.__name__
     return u'file' + file