In 1925, Huang went back to China and became a professor and later department head at Zhejiang Provincial College of Medicine.
Huang was also a professor at the renowned wartime National Southwestern Associated University during the Japanese occupation.
He served as the Chair of Department of Chemistry, Academy of Military Medical Sciences of PLA.
Huang was also a senior researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The Huang modification is a one-pot shortcut for the Wolff-Kishner reduction, a reaction in which ketone and aldehyde carbonyls are converted to the corresponding methylene or methyl groups via the hydrazone derivative.
Some other practical advantages include the simple experimental setup, inexpensive starting materials, and a reduced amount of solvent needed, factors which made the conditions suitable for use in China at the time, where chemical supplies were hard to come by.