Following her death in 2019 from a flash flood, the Chinese Communist Party posthumously elevated Huang into a national model for poverty alleviation.

[5] Following her graduation, she gave up her desire of finding a profession in Beijing and instead decided to return to Baise to work with rural government's poverty alleviation.

She also helped underprivileged students, who have been admitted to universities, to apply for various subsidies, enabling them to have financial support for higher studies.

On 18 June, search and rescue team members found Huang's body in the downstream river channel, confirming that she had died after her vehicle was washed away by a flash flood.

[12][15] In July 2019, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China Xi Jinping offered condolences to Huang's family and issued instructions honoring her.

In recognition of her work as village party secretary, Xi honored her as an 'national outstanding Communist Party member' stating "learn from Huang Wenxiu... Be brave enough to shoulder responsibilities and willing to show dedications, so as to make new and greater contributions in the Long March of the new era", hence making her into a national model and modern-day hero in China.

[17] She was also posthumously awarded the following: An opera based on Huang's life On the Way to Alleviate Poverty was directed by Tian Qinxin and was presented for the first time on 24 June 2020 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.