diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/parquet.pyx b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/parquet.pyx
index c75496e8395..883acdb67c0 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/parquet.pyx
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/parquet.pyx
@@ -153,9 +153,15 @@ cpdef generate_pandas_metadata(Table table, index):
         types,
     )
 
-    md = metadata[b'pandas']
-    json_str = md.decode("utf-8")
-    return json_str
+    md_dict = json.loads(metadata[b"pandas"])
+
+    # correct metadata for list and struct types
+    for col_meta in md_dict["columns"]:
+        if col_meta["numpy_type"] in ("list", "struct"):
+            col_meta["numpy_type"] = "object"
+
+    return json.dumps(md_dict)
+
 
 cpdef read_parquet(filepaths_or_buffers, columns=None, row_groups=None,
                    skiprows=None, num_rows=None, strings_to_categorical=False,
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/core/dtypes.py b/python/cudf/cudf/core/dtypes.py
index 64738ad0cf3..7a706ddebe0 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/core/dtypes.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/core/dtypes.py
@@ -164,9 +164,6 @@ def __repr__(self):
         else:
             return f"ListDtype({self.element_type})"
 
-    def __str__(self):
-        return "object"
-
 
 class StructDtype(ExtensionDtype):