Early life

Ray Huang was born in Changsha, Hunan Province, in 1918. He was the oldest of three children. His father, Huang Zhenbai (黄震白), was an early member of the revolutionary group, Tongmenghui, who became less active in the group over the years. Ray Huang grew up in Hunan and went to study electrical engineering at Nankai University, Tianjin in 1936. At the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938, he returned to Changsha and wrote for the Japanese War Report (《抗日战报》).

Afterwards, he entered the Kuomintang Central Officer Training School (国民党中央军校) at Chengdu, Sichuan, graduating in 1940. He was appointed Second Lieutenant Platoon Leader in 1941; he was a staff First Lieutenant stationed in India in 1942, and a Staff Major in the New First Army in the Burma theater from 1943-1945. While in Burma, he was shot through the thigh, but he made a complete recovery. After the war he attended the American Army Staff College (graduating in 1947), and was part of a military delegation to Japan from 1949-1950. However, with the loss of mainland China in 1949, the Nationalist army in Taiwan was downsized (and purged of political opponents) and as a result,Huang was discharged from the Nationalist Army in 1950. His military career was over.