diff --git a/Michelf/Markdown.php b/Michelf/Markdown.php
index c3eaf44..07e48ba 100644
--- a/Michelf/Markdown.php
+++ b/Michelf/Markdown.php
@@ -1870,9 +1870,9 @@ class Markdown implements MarkdownInterface {
 			return;
 		}
 
-		$this->utf8_strlen = create_function('$text', 'return preg_match_all(
-			"/[\\\\x00-\\\\xBF]|[\\\\xC0-\\\\xFF][\\\\x80-\\\\xBF]*/", 
-			$text, $m);');
+		$this->utf8_strlen = function($text) {
+			return preg_match_all('/[\x00-\xBF]|[\xC0-\xFF][\x80-\xBF]*/', $text, $m);
+		}
 	}
 
 	/**