Huang was born in Neishidi, Chuansha, Jiangsu (now part of Pudong, Shanghai) during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing dynasty.

In 1899, Huang topped the imperial examination in Songjiang Prefecture, which covered much of present-day Shanghai, and obtained the position of a xiucai.

In 1901, Huang enrolled in Nanyang Public School (now Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and met Cai Yuanpei, who was then teaching the Chinese language there.

In 1903, while giving a talk in Nanhui District, Huang was accused of being an anti-government revolutionary, and was arrested and imprisoned.

Huang fled to Japan and stayed there for three months before returning to Shanghai, where he continued to set up and run schools.

Between February 1914 and early 1917, Huang, working as a reporter for Shen Bao, visited and observed various schools throughout China.

In April 1915, he followed an industrial organisation to the United States, where he visited 52 schools in 25 cities and saw that vocational education was very popular there.

During the May Fourth Movement of 1919, he used his position as the Secretary of Education to rally support from the schools in Shanghai to disrupt classes and stage demonstrations.

In 1927, when the Kuomintang was in conflict with the Chinese Communist Party, Huang was accused of being a "scholar-tyrant" (學閥) – a term to describe those who attempted to expand their political influence through education – and had an order issued for his arrest.

After the Mukden Incident in 1931, Huang became worried about Japanese aggression towards China so he took part in anti-Japanese activities.

Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Huang moved to Chongqing, the wartime capital of the Republic of China government, and served as a representative in the National Defence Council.

When all human resources have been exhausted and problems arise in management, the environment becomes more complicated and they lose control of the situation.

Throughout history, there have been many examples: a ruler neglects state affairs and eunuchs use the opportunity to seize power; a good system of governance ceases to function after the person who initiated it dies; people who lust for glory but end up in humiliation.

He also consecutively served as the Vice Chairman in the second, third and fourth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Despite holding positions in the Communist government, Huang disagreed with some of its policies and was particularly opposed to state monopoly in purchasing and marketing.

Nevertheless, Huang managed to retain his positions in the National People's Congress and Political Consultative Conference when the Chinese Communist Party started purging non-communist members from government bodies.