diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkSqlParser.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkSqlParser.scala
index f092360a98ba..82e41433fa50 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkSqlParser.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkSqlParser.scala
@@ -1312,12 +1312,28 @@ class SparkSqlAstBuilder(conf: SQLConf) extends AstBuilder {
         // just convert the whole type string to lower case, otherwise the struct field names
         // will no longer be case sensitive. Instead, we rely on our parser to get the proper
         // case before passing it to Hive.
-        typedVisit[DataType](col.dataType).catalogString,
+        getCatalogColumnDataType(col.dataType()),
         nullable = true,
         Option(col.STRING).map(string))
     }
   }
 
+  private def getCatalogColumnDataType(dataTypeContext: DataTypeContext): String = {
+    val defaultType = typedVisit[DataType](dataTypeContext).catalogString
+
+    dataTypeContext match {
+      case p: PrimitiveDataTypeContext =>
+        p.identifier.getText.toLowerCase match {
+          case "varchar" | "char" =>
+            dataTypeContext.getText.toLowerCase
+          case _ =>
+            defaultType
+        }
+      case _ =>
+        defaultType
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Create a [[ScriptInputOutputSchema]].
    */
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
index 88cf06fce6c6..8fdfd167ef06 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.client.HiveClient
  * A persistent implementation of the system catalog using Hive.
  * All public methods must be synchronized for thread-safety.
  */
-private[spark] class HiveExternalCatalog(client: HiveClient, hadoopConf: Configuration)
+private[spark] class HiveExternalCatalog(private[hive] val client: HiveClient,
+                                         hadoopConf: Configuration)
   extends ExternalCatalog with Logging {
 
   import CatalogTypes.TablePartitionSpec
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/OrcSourceSuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/OrcSourceSuite.scala
index 0f37cd7bf365..7ba2bd6ec31b 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/OrcSourceSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/orc/OrcSourceSuite.scala
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.orc
 
 import java.io.File
 
+import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveExternalCatalog
 import org.scalatest.BeforeAndAfterAll
 
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{QueryTest, Row}
@@ -146,6 +147,81 @@ abstract class OrcSuite extends QueryTest with TestHiveSingleton with BeforeAndA
 
     sql("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS orcNullValues")
   }
+
+  test("Read char/varchar column written by Hive") {
+    val hiveClient = spark.sharedState.externalCatalog.asInstanceOf[HiveExternalCatalog].client
+    val location = Utils.createTempDir()
+    val uri = location.toURI
+    try {
+      hiveClient.runSqlHive(
+        s"""
+          |CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE hive_orc(
+          |  a STRING,
+          |  b CHAR(10),
+          |  c VARCHAR(10))
+          |STORED AS orc
+          |LOCATION '$uri'""".stripMargin)
+
+      hiveClient.runSqlHive(
+        "INSERT INTO TABLE hive_orc SELECT 'a', 'b', 'c' FROM (SELECT 1) t")
+
+      // We create a different table in Spark using the same schema which points to
+      // the same location.
+      spark.sql(
+        s"""
+           |CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE spark_orc(
+           |  a STRING,
+           |  b CHAR(10),
+           |  c VARCHAR(10))
+           |STORED AS orc
+           |LOCATION '$uri'""".stripMargin)
+      val result = Row("a", "b         ", "c")
+      checkAnswer(spark.table("hive_orc"), result)
+      checkAnswer(spark.table("spark_orc"), result)
+    } finally {
+      hiveClient.runSqlHive("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS hive_orc")
+      hiveClient.runSqlHive("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS spark_orc")
+      Utils.deleteRecursively(location)
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("Read char/varchar column written by Spark in Hive") {
+    val hiveClient = spark.sharedState.externalCatalog.asInstanceOf[HiveExternalCatalog].client
+    val location = Utils.createTempDir()
+    val uri = location.toURI
+
+    try {
+      spark.sql(
+        s"""
+         |CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE spark_orc(
+         |  a STRING,
+         |  b CHAR(10),
+         |  c VARCHAR(10))
+         |STORED AS orc
+         |LOCATION '$uri'""".stripMargin)
+
+      spark.sql("INSERT INTO TABLE spark_orc SELECT 'a', 'b', 'c' FROM (SELECT 1) t")
+
+      // We create a different table in Hive, using the same schema which points to
+      // the same location
+      hiveClient.runSqlHive(
+        s"""
+          |CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE hive_orc(
+          |  a STRING,
+          |  b CHAR(10),
+          |  c VARCHAR(10))
+          |STORED AS orc
+          |LOCATION '$uri'""".stripMargin)
+
+      val result = Row("a", "b         ", "c")
+      checkAnswer(spark.table("hive_orc"), result)
+      checkAnswer(spark.table("spark_orc"), result)
+    } finally {
+      hiveClient.runSqlHive("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS hive_orc")
+      hiveClient.runSqlHive("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS spark_orc")
+      Utils.deleteRecursively(location)
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 class OrcSourceSuite extends OrcSuite {