He has lived in China for over a decade, first in Anhui province and then in Beijing. In 2011, he wrote and directed the award-winning documentary Sky Ghosts. His second documentary, Red Son, continued the religious theme by focusing on the history and development of Catholicism in China. Since September 2015, Cade has been Professor of Film Studies at Tsinghua, China's top university. Benton has lectured on Chinese and Japanese subjects on cruise ships in the region.