diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cbiapts.c b/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cbiapts.c
index 9b03a6e1017..368db5e7be4 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cbiapts.c
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/cbiapts.c
@@ -635,7 +635,7 @@ static void TestBreakIteratorStatusVec() {
  *         Test that ubrk_setUText() is present and works for a simple case.
  */
 static void TestBreakIteratorUText(void) {
-    const char *UTF8Str = "A\xc3\x85Z ARing";  /* c3 85 is utf-8 for A with a ring on top */
+    const char *UTF8Str = "\x41\xc3\x85\x5A\x20\x41\x52\x69\x6E\x67";  /* c3 85 is utf-8 for A with a ring on top */
                       /*   0  1   2 34567890  */
 
     UErrorCode      status = U_ZERO_ERROR;
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
index 1ed7b9eb013..9a9c0669a6c 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
@@ -297,8 +297,8 @@ void RBBIAPITest::TestGetSetAdoptText()
     //
     //   Quick test to see if UText is working at all.
     //
-    const char *s1 = "hello world";
-    const char *s2 = "see ya";
+    const char *s1 = "\x68\x65\x6C\x6C\x6F\x20\x77\x6F\x72\x6C\x64"; /* "hello world" in UTF-8 */
+    const char *s2 = "\x73\x65\x65\x20\x79\x61"; /* "see ya" in UTF-8 */
     //                012345678901
 
     status = U_ZERO_ERROR;