diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index dd8cbd6e..5917fe53 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 * Update CacheControl library 0.12.4 (bd94f7e) to 0.12.5 (cd91309)
 * Update Certifi 2018.01.18 (e225253) to 2018.08.24 (8be9f89)
 * Update dateutil module 2.7.2 (ff03c0f) to 2.7.2 (49690ee)
+* Update feedparser 5.2.1 (5646f4c) to 5.2.1 (2b11c80)
 
 
 [develop changelog]
diff --git a/lib/feedparser/mixin.py b/lib/feedparser/mixin.py
index 5f97dc80..e5950f8b 100644
--- a/lib/feedparser/mixin.py
+++ b/lib/feedparser/mixin.py
@@ -442,6 +442,11 @@ class _FeedParserMixin(
 
         element, expectingText, pieces = self.elementstack.pop()
 
+        # Ensure each piece is a str for Python 3
+        for (i, v) in enumerate(pieces):
+            if isinstance(v, bytes_):
+                pieces[i] = v.decode('utf-8')
+
         if self.version == 'atom10' and self.contentparams.get('type', 'text') == 'application/xhtml+xml':
             # remove enclosing child element, but only if it is a <div> and
             # only if all the remaining content is nested underneath it.
@@ -463,11 +468,6 @@ class _FeedParserMixin(
                 else:
                     pieces = pieces[1:-1]
 
-        # Ensure each piece is a str for Python 3
-        for (i, v) in enumerate(pieces):
-            if isinstance(v, bytes_):
-                pieces[i] = v.decode('utf-8')
-
         output = ''.join(pieces)
         if stripWhitespace:
             output = output.strip()