$ t() {
   perl -e'
      use open ":std", ":encoding(UTF-8)";
      use if $ARGV[0], feature => "unicode_strings";
      CORE::say join "|", split " ", "a\x20b\xA0c";
   ' -- "$@"
}

$ t 0
a|b c

$ t 1
a|b|c