my $s_orig = "\xE2\x98\xBB";

##</code><code>##

use Test::More tests => 1;

use JSON::XS qw( decode_json encode_json );

my $s_orig = "\xE2\x98\xBB";

my $data_orig = [ $s_orig ];
my $json_utf8 = encode_json($data_orig);
my $data_got = decode_json($json_utf8);
my $s_got = $data_got->[0];
is($s_got, $s_orig);

##</code><code>##

use Test::More tests => 1;

use JSON::XS qw( decode_json encode_json );

my $smile_utf8 = "\xE2\x98\xBB";
utf8::decode( my $s_orig = my $smile_utf8 );

my $data_orig = [ $s_orig ];
my $json_utf8 = encode_json($data_orig);
my $data_got = decode_json($json_utf8);
my $s_got = $data_got->[0];
is($s_got, $s_orig);