diff --git a/jieba/_compat.py b/jieba/_compat.py
index 4ea3f7ac..4347ba06 100644
--- a/jieba/_compat.py
+++ b/jieba/_compat.py
@@ -15,13 +15,14 @@ def setLogLevel(log_level):
 check_paddle_install = {'is_paddle_installed': False}
 
 try:
-    import pkg_resources
+    from importlib import resources
 
-    get_module_res = lambda *res: pkg_resources.resource_stream(__name__,
-                                                                os.path.join(*res))
+    get_module_res = lambda f: str(resources.files('jieba').joinpath(f))
 except ImportError:
-    get_module_res = lambda *res: open(os.path.normpath(os.path.join(
-        os.getcwd(), os.path.dirname(__file__), *res)), 'rb')
+    # backward compatibility (Python 3.8 or below)
+    # install this backport via `pip install importlib_resources` if needed
+    import importlib_resources
+    get_module_res = lambda f: str(importlib_resources.files('jieba').joinpath(f))
 
 
 def enable_paddle():
@@ -51,27 +52,17 @@ def enable_paddle():
                                  "Now, back to jieba basic cut......")
 
 
-PY2 = sys.version_info[0] == 2
 
 default_encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
 
-if PY2:
-    text_type = unicode
-    string_types = (str, unicode)
-
-    iterkeys = lambda d: d.iterkeys()
-    itervalues = lambda d: d.itervalues()
-    iteritems = lambda d: d.iteritems()
-
-else:
-    text_type = str
-    string_types = (str,)
-    xrange = range
-
-    iterkeys = lambda d: iter(d.keys())
-    itervalues = lambda d: iter(d.values())
-    iteritems = lambda d: iter(d.items())
+# Dropped Python 2 support
+text_type = str
+string_types = (str,)
+xrange = range
 
+iterkeys = lambda d: iter(d.keys())
+itervalues = lambda d: iter(d.values())
+iteritems = lambda d: iter(d.items())
 
 def strdecode(sentence):
     if not isinstance(sentence, text_type):