In [85]: l = np.array([u'blah',u'blah',u'blah'])

In [87]: type(l[0])
Out[87]: numpy.unicode_

In [88]: v = np.unicode_('bubu')

In [89]: l[0] = v

In [90]: l
Out[90]: 
array([u'bubu', u'blah', u'blah'], 
      dtype='<U4')

In [91]: l[1:3] = v

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
In [92]: l
Out[92]: 
array([u'bubu', u'\uf500\udc62\uf500\udc62\u8d00\udc00',
       u'\uf500\udc62\uf500\udc62\u8d00\udc00'], 
      dtype='<U4')
<<<<<<<<<<<< I consider this a problem

In [93]: {k: v for k, v in sysconfig.get_config_vars().items() if 'unicode' in k.lower()}
Out[93]: 
{'PY_UNICODE_TYPE': 'unsigned short',
 'Py_UNICODE_SIZE': 2,
 'Py_USING_UNICODE': 1,
 'UNICODE_OBJS': 'Objects/unicodeobject.o Objects/unicodectype.o'}

In [94]: np.**version**
Out[94]: '1.7.1'

In [81]: l = np.array([u'blah',u'blah',u'blah'])

In [82]: type(l[0])
Out[82]: numpy.unicode_

In [83]: v = np.unicode_('bubu')

In [84]: l[0] = v

In [85]: l
Out[85]: 
array([u'bubu', u'blah', u'blah'], 
      dtype='<U4')

In [86]: l[1:3] = v

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
In [87]: l
Out[87]: 
array([u'bubu', u'bubu', u'bubu'], 
      dtype='<U4')
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< this works fine

In [88]: {k: v for k, v in sysconfig.get_config_vars().items() if 'unicode' in k.lower()}
Out[88]: 
{'PY_UNICODE_TYPE': 0,
 'Py_UNICODE_SIZE': 4,
 'Py_USING_UNICODE': 1,
 'UNICODE_OBJS': 'Objects/unicodeobject.o Objects/unicodectype.o'}

In [89]: np.**version**
Out[89]: '1.7.1'