diff --git a/swift/common/swob.py b/swift/common/swob.py
index 4713d0deb2..9ec57a026e 100644
--- a/swift/common/swob.py
+++ b/swift/common/swob.py
@@ -1022,6 +1022,11 @@ class Response(object):
             self.headers.update(headers)
         for key, value in kw.iteritems():
             setattr(self, key, value)
+        # When specifying both 'content_type' and 'charset' in the kwargs,
+        # charset needs to be applied *after* content_type, otherwise charset
+        # can get wiped out when content_type sorts later in dict order.
+        if 'charset' in kw and 'content_type' in kw:
+            self.charset = kw['charset']
 
     def _prepare_for_ranges(self, ranges):
         """
diff --git a/swift/common/utils.py b/swift/common/utils.py
index 98c423251d..acd16c2bcc 100644
--- a/swift/common/utils.py
+++ b/swift/common/utils.py
@@ -2211,3 +2211,33 @@ def ismount(path):
         return True
 
     return False
+
+
+_rfc_token = r'[^()<>@,;:\"/\[\]?={}\x00-\x20\x7f]+'
+_rfc_extension_pattern = re.compile(
+    r'(?:\s*;\s*(' + _rfc_token + r")\s*(?:=\s*(" + _rfc_token +
+    r'|"(?:[^"\\]|\\.)*"))?)')
+
+
+def parse_content_type(content_type):
+    """
+    Parse a content-type and its parameters into values.
+    RFC 2616 sec 14.17 and 3.7 are pertinent.
+    Examples:
+
+        'text/plain; charset=UTF-8' -> ('text/plain', [('charset, 'UTF-8')])
+        'text/plain; charset=UTF-8; level=1' ->
+            ('text/plain', [('charset, 'UTF-8'), ('level', '1')])
+
+    :param content_type: content_type to parse
+    :returns: a typle containing (content type, list of k, v parameter tuples)
+    """
+    parm_list = []
+    if ';' in content_type:
+        content_type, parms = content_type.split(';', 1)
+        parms = ';' + parms
+        for m in _rfc_extension_pattern.findall(parms):
+            key = m[0].strip()
+            value = m[1].strip()
+            parm_list.append((key, value))
+    return content_type, parm_list
diff --git a/swift/container/server.py b/swift/container/server.py
index ba5fc5c9a7..e84c0de8d3 100644
--- a/swift/container/server.py
+++ b/swift/container/server.py
@@ -18,9 +18,9 @@ from __future__ import with_statement
 import os
 import time
 import traceback
-from xml.sax import saxutils
 from datetime import datetime
 from gettext import gettext as _
+from xml.etree.cElementTree import Element, SubElement, tostring
 
 from eventlet import Timeout
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ from swift.common.request_helpers import get_param
 from swift.common.utils import get_logger, hash_path, public, \
     normalize_timestamp, storage_directory, validate_sync_to, \
     config_true_value, validate_device_partition, json, timing_stats, \
-    replication
+    replication, parse_content_type
 from swift.common.constraints import CONTAINER_LISTING_LIMIT, \
     check_mount, check_float, check_utf8, FORMAT2CONTENT_TYPE
 from swift.common.bufferedhttp import http_connect
@@ -330,25 +330,37 @@ class ContainerController(object):
         headers['Content-Type'] = out_content_type
         return HTTPNoContent(request=req, headers=headers, charset='utf-8')
 
-    def derive_content_type_metadata(self, content_type, size):
+    def update_data_record(self, record):
         """
-        Will check the last parameter and if it starts with 'swift_bytes=' will
-        strip it off. Returns either the passed in content_type and size
-        or the content_type without the swift_bytes param and its value as
-        the new size.
-        :params content_type: Content Type from db
-        :params size: # bytes from db, an int
-        :returns: tuple: content_type, size
+        Perform any mutations to container listing records that are common to
+        all serialization formats, and returns it as a dict.
+
+        Converts created time to iso timestamp.
+        Replaces size with 'swift_bytes' content type parameter.
+
+        :params record: object entry record
+        :returns: modified record
         """
-        if ';' in content_type:
-            new_content_type, param = content_type.rsplit(';', 1)
-            if param.lstrip().startswith('swift_bytes='):
-                key, value = param.split('=')
+        (name, created, size, content_type, etag) = record
+        if content_type is None:
+            return {'subdir': name}
+        response = {'bytes': size, 'hash': etag, 'name': name}
+        last_modified = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(float(created)).isoformat()
+        # python isoformat() doesn't include msecs when zero
+        if len(last_modified) < len("1970-01-01T00:00:00.000000"):
+            last_modified += ".000000"
+        response['last_modified'] = last_modified + 'Z'
+        content_type, params = parse_content_type(content_type)
+        for key, value in params:
+            if key == 'swift_bytes':
                 try:
-                    return new_content_type, int(value)
+                    response['bytes'] = int(value)
                 except ValueError:
                     self.logger.exception("Invalid swift_bytes")
-        return content_type, size
+            else:
+                content_type += ';%s=%s' % (key, value)
+        response['content_type'] = content_type
+        return response
 
     @public
     @timing_stats()
@@ -398,65 +410,39 @@ class ContainerController(object):
             'X-Timestamp': info['created_at'],
             'X-PUT-Timestamp': info['put_timestamp'],
         }
-        resp_headers.update(
-            (key, value)
-            for key, (value, timestamp) in broker.metadata.iteritems()
-            if value != '' and (key.lower() in self.save_headers or
-                                key.lower().startswith('x-container-meta-')))
+        for key, (value, timestamp) in broker.metadata.iteritems():
+            if value and (key.lower() in self.save_headers or
+                          key.lower().startswith('x-container-meta-')):
+                resp_headers[key] = value
+        ret = Response(request=req, headers=resp_headers,
+                       content_type=out_content_type, charset='utf-8')
         container_list = broker.list_objects_iter(limit, marker, end_marker,
                                                   prefix, delimiter, path)
         if out_content_type == 'application/json':
-            data = []
-            for (name, created_at, size, content_type, etag) in container_list:
-                if content_type is None:
-                    data.append({"subdir": name})
-                else:
-                    created_at = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(
-                        float(created_at)).isoformat()
-                    # python isoformat() doesn't include msecs when zero
-                    if len(created_at) < len("1970-01-01T00:00:00.000000"):
-                        created_at += ".000000"
-                    created_at += 'Z'
-                    content_type, size = self.derive_content_type_metadata(
-                        content_type, size)
-                    data.append({'last_modified': created_at, 'bytes': size,
-                                'content_type': content_type, 'hash': etag,
-                                'name': name})
-            container_list = json.dumps(data)
+            ret.body = json.dumps([self.update_data_record(record)
+                                   for record in container_list])
         elif out_content_type.endswith('/xml'):
-            xml_output = []
-            for (name, created_at, size, content_type, etag) in container_list:
-                created_at = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(
-                    float(created_at)).isoformat()
-                # python isoformat() doesn't include msecs when zero
-                if len(created_at) < len("1970-01-01T00:00:00.000000"):
-                    created_at += ".000000"
-                created_at += 'Z'
-                if content_type is None:
-                    xml_output.append(
-                        '<subdir name=%s><name>%s</name></subdir>' %
-                        (saxutils.quoteattr(name), saxutils.escape(name)))
+            doc = Element('container', name=container.decode('utf-8'))
+            for obj in container_list:
+                record = self.update_data_record(obj)
+                if 'subdir' in record:
+                    name = record['subdir'].decode('utf-8')
+                    sub = SubElement(doc, 'subdir', name=name)
+                    SubElement(sub, 'name').text = name
                 else:
-                    content_type, size = self.derive_content_type_metadata(
-                        content_type, size)
-                    content_type = saxutils.escape(content_type)
-                    xml_output.append(
-                        '<object><name>%s</name><hash>%s</hash>'
-                        '<bytes>%d</bytes><content_type>%s</content_type>'
-                        '<last_modified>%s</last_modified></object>' %
-                        (saxutils.escape(name), etag, size, content_type,
-                         created_at))
-            container_list = ''.join([
-                '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n',
-                '<container name=%s>' % saxutils.quoteattr(container),
-                ''.join(xml_output), '</container>'])
+                    obj_element = SubElement(doc, 'object')
+                    for field in ["name", "hash", "bytes", "content_type",
+                                  "last_modified"]:
+                        SubElement(obj_element, field).text = str(
+                            record.pop(field)).decode('utf-8')
+                    for field in sorted(record.keys()):
+                        SubElement(obj_element, field).text = str(
+                            record[field]).decode('utf-8')
+            ret.body = tostring(doc, encoding='UTF-8')
         else:
             if not container_list:
                 return HTTPNoContent(request=req, headers=resp_headers)
-            container_list = '\n'.join(r[0] for r in container_list) + '\n'
-        ret = Response(body=container_list, request=req, headers=resp_headers)
-        ret.content_type = out_content_type
-        ret.charset = 'utf-8'
+            ret.body = '\n'.join(rec[0] for rec in container_list) + '\n'
         return ret
 
     @public
diff --git a/test/unit/common/test_swob.py b/test/unit/common/test_swob.py
index aebbd5fbaf..e4ff0ff980 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/test_swob.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/test_swob.py
@@ -952,6 +952,14 @@ class TestResponse(unittest.TestCase):
         resp.charset = 'utf16'
         self.assertEquals(resp.charset, 'utf16')
 
+    def test_charset_content_type(self):
+        resp = swift.common.swob.Response(
+            content_type='text/plain', charset='utf-8')
+        self.assertEquals(resp.charset, 'utf-8')
+        resp = swift.common.swob.Response(
+            charset='utf-8', content_type='text/plain')
+        self.assertEquals(resp.charset, 'utf-8')
+
     def test_etag(self):
         resp = self._get_response()
         resp.etag = 'hi'
diff --git a/test/unit/common/test_utils.py b/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
index 0e9c1286e7..59631496d0 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
@@ -1529,6 +1529,27 @@ log_name = %(yarr)s'''
         finally:
             shutil.rmtree(tmpdir)
 
+    def test_parse_content_type(self):
+        self.assertEquals(utils.parse_content_type('text/plain'),
+                          ('text/plain', []))
+        self.assertEquals(utils.parse_content_type('text/plain;charset=utf-8'),
+                          ('text/plain', [('charset', 'utf-8')]))
+        self.assertEquals(
+            utils.parse_content_type('text/plain;hello="world";charset=utf-8'),
+            ('text/plain', [('hello', '"world"'), ('charset', 'utf-8')]))
+        self.assertEquals(
+            utils.parse_content_type('text/plain; hello="world"; a=b'),
+            ('text/plain', [('hello', '"world"'), ('a', 'b')]))
+        self.assertEquals(
+            utils.parse_content_type(r'text/plain; x="\""; a=b'),
+            ('text/plain', [('x', r'"\""'), ('a', 'b')]))
+        self.assertEquals(
+            utils.parse_content_type(r'text/plain; x; a=b'),
+            ('text/plain', [('x', ''), ('a', 'b')]))
+        self.assertEquals(
+            utils.parse_content_type(r'text/plain; x="\""; a'),
+            ('text/plain', [('x', r'"\""'), ('a', '')]))
+
 
 class TestFileLikeIter(unittest.TestCase):
 
diff --git a/test/unit/container/test_server.py b/test/unit/container/test_server.py
index e70c70e246..6a3b8b1b10 100644
--- a/test/unit/container/test_server.py
+++ b/test/unit/container/test_server.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ from contextlib import contextmanager
 from shutil import rmtree
 from StringIO import StringIO
 from tempfile import mkdtemp
+from xml.dom import minidom
 
 from eventlet import spawn, Timeout, listen
 import simplejson
@@ -890,7 +891,7 @@ class TestContainerController(unittest.TestCase):
                     'HTTP_X_SIZE': 0})
             resp = self.controller.PUT(req)
             self.assertEquals(resp.status_int, 201)
-        xml_body = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n' \
+        xml_body = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>\n" \
             '<container name="xmlc">' \
                 '<object><name>0</name><hash>x</hash><bytes>0</bytes>' \
                     '<content_type>text/plain</content_type>' \
@@ -905,6 +906,7 @@ class TestContainerController(unittest.TestCase):
                     '<last_modified>1970-01-01T00:00:01.000000Z' \
                     '</last_modified></object>' \
             '</container>'
+
         # tests
         req = Request.blank('/sda1/p/a/xmlc?format=xml',
                 environ={'REQUEST_METHOD': 'GET'})
@@ -961,7 +963,8 @@ class TestContainerController(unittest.TestCase):
         req = Request.blank('/sda1/p/a/c', environ={'REQUEST_METHOD': 'PUT',
             'HTTP_X_TIMESTAMP': '0'})
         resp = self.controller.PUT(req)
-        for i, ctype in enumerate((snowman.encode('utf-8'), 'text/plain; "utf-8"')):
+        for i, ctype in enumerate((snowman.encode('utf-8'),
+                                  'text/plain; charset="utf-8"')):
             req = Request.blank('/sda1/p/a/c/%s' % i, environ={
                     'REQUEST_METHOD': 'PUT',
                     'HTTP_X_TIMESTAMP': '1', 'HTTP_X_CONTENT_TYPE': ctype,
@@ -971,7 +974,7 @@ class TestContainerController(unittest.TestCase):
         req = Request.blank('/sda1/p/a/c?format=json', environ={'REQUEST_METHOD': 'GET'})
         resp = self.controller.GET(req)
         result = [x['content_type'] for x in simplejson.loads(resp.body)]
-        self.assertEquals(result, [u'\u2603', 'text/plain; "utf-8"'])
+        self.assertEquals(result, [u'\u2603', 'text/plain;charset="utf-8"'])
 
     def test_GET_accept_not_valid(self):
         req = Request.blank('/sda1/p/a/c', environ={'REQUEST_METHOD': 'PUT',
@@ -1071,7 +1074,7 @@ class TestContainerController(unittest.TestCase):
         req = Request.blank('/sda1/p/a/c?prefix=US-&delimiter=-&format=xml',
                 environ={'REQUEST_METHOD': 'GET'})
         resp = self.controller.GET(req)
-        self.assertEquals(resp.body, '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>'
+        self.assertEquals(resp.body, "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>"
             '\n<container name="c"><subdir name="US-OK-"><name>US-OK-</name></subdir>'
             '<subdir name="US-TX-"><name>US-TX-</name></subdir>'
             '<subdir name="US-UT-"><name>US-UT-</name></subdir></container>')
@@ -1090,11 +1093,17 @@ class TestContainerController(unittest.TestCase):
         req = Request.blank('/sda1/p/a/c?delimiter=/&format=xml',
                 environ={'REQUEST_METHOD': 'GET'})
         resp = self.controller.GET(req)
-        self.assertEquals(
-            resp.body,
-            '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n<container name="c">'
-            '<subdir name="&lt;\'sub\' &quot;dir&quot;&gt;/">'
-            '<name>&lt;\'sub\' "dir"&gt;/</name></subdir></container>')
+        dom = minidom.parseString(resp.body)
+        self.assert_(len(dom.getElementsByTagName('container')) == 1)
+        container = dom.getElementsByTagName('container')[0]
+        self.assert_(len(container.getElementsByTagName('subdir')) == 1)
+        subdir = container.getElementsByTagName('subdir')[0]
+        self.assertEquals(unicode(subdir.attributes['name'].value),
+                          u'<\'sub\' "dir">/')
+        self.assert_(len(subdir.getElementsByTagName('name')) == 1)
+        name = subdir.getElementsByTagName('name')[0]
+        self.assertEquals(unicode(name.childNodes[0].data),
+                          u'<\'sub\' "dir">/')
 
     def test_GET_path(self):
         req = Request.blank('/sda1/p/a/c', environ={'REQUEST_METHOD': 'PUT',