Having a father who was a performer, Huang and his younger brother Cheng-sheng not only learned how to work the puppets, but were also, when Huang was 11, quietly sent to a school that taught them to read Chinese, something not generally done under Japanese rule.
生於戲劇家庭，父親不僅傳授黃海岱與弟弟程晟操弄布袋戲，並在他十一歲時偷偷送他到學堂去學漢文。