diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/HiveClientImpl.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/HiveClientImpl.scala
index b1c83af228..edb1c125f5 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/HiveClientImpl.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/client/HiveClientImpl.scala
@@ -999,8 +999,11 @@ private[hive] object HiveClientImpl extends Logging {
     // For Hive Serde, we still need to to restore the raw type for char and varchar type.
     // When reading data in parquet, orc, or avro file format with string type for char,
     // the tailing spaces may lost if we are not going to pad it.
-    val typeString = CharVarcharUtils.getRawTypeString(c.metadata)
-      .getOrElse(c.dataType.catalogString)
+    val typeString = if (SQLConf.get.charVarcharAsString) {
+      c.dataType.catalogString
+    } else {
+      CharVarcharUtils.getRawTypeString(c.metadata).getOrElse(c.dataType.catalogString)
+    }
     new FieldSchema(c.name, typeString, c.getComment().orNull)
   }
 
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/HiveCharVarcharTestSuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/HiveCharVarcharTestSuite.scala
index 48406d99a5..182047a8c6 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/HiveCharVarcharTestSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/HiveCharVarcharTestSuite.scala
@@ -59,6 +59,20 @@ class HiveCharVarcharTestSuite extends CharVarcharTestSuite with TestHiveSinglet
       checkAnswer(sql("SELECT v from t where c = 'Spark' and v = 'kyuubi'"), Row("kyuubi"))
     }
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-36552: Fix different behavior of writing char/varchar to hive and datasource table") {
+    Seq("true", "false").foreach { v =>
+      withSQLConf(
+        "spark.sql.hive.convertMetastoreParquet" -> v,
+        "spark.sql.legacy.charVarcharAsString" -> "true") {
+        withTable("t") {
+          sql(s"CREATE TABLE t (c varchar(2)) USING $format")
+          sql("INSERT INTO t SELECT 'kyuubi'")
+          checkAnswer(sql("SELECT c from t"), Row("kyuubi"))
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 class HiveCharVarcharDDLTestSuite extends CharVarcharDDLTestBase with TestHiveSingleton {