Hua worked in Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau and Tianjin Machinery Bureau successively, and taught in Shanghai Gezhi College in Guangxu two years (1876). In his later years, he turned to education and engaged in narrative and teaching. He has extensive knowledge in mathematics, science, chemistry, engineering, medicine, geography and music, and pays attention to scientific research. He wrote simple mathematics lecture notes and readers, and commented on mathematics with a special book "Random Talk on Learning Computing", which made great contributions to cultivating talents and popularizing science and became a prestigious generation of scholars. In the 13th year of Guangxu (1887), he taught in Tianjin armament school, and in the 18th year of Guangxu (1892), he gave lectures in Wuchang, Hubei. His students, Yang and his younger brother Hua Shifang (word ruoxi, 1854 ~ 1905) all became mathematicians under his influence.
Hua's academic spirit opposes the general trend that mathematicians like to "foster strengths and avoid weaknesses" and only talk about algorithms and "hide" arithmetic. He paid attention to mathematics education, and once said, "I am like a spring silkworm, and I would like to die", and pinned my hope of developing mathematics on later study. In Critique of Mathematics, he expounded his mathematics teaching thoughts, such as "readers should not be enslaved by books", which showed that his methodology had dialectical content; Hua's philosophy is scattered in the narrative, both idealistic and materialistic, and has not yet formed an ideological system.
Hua is a high official, but not a politician. He did not worship Li Rong, was poor all his life, and insisted on taking the road of science and education. He is as famous as Li, Xu Shou and a pioneer of modern science in China.