KAYING (KIAYING), DIOCESE of. — In the civil province of Kwangtung (southern China), erected as an apostolic prefecture on 20 February 1929 by division of the mission of Swatow (v.) and entrusted to the Society for the Foreign Missions of the United States of America (Maryknoll); elevated on 18 June 1935 to an apostolic vicariate and on 11 April 1946, with the establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in China, to a suffragan diocese of Canton.
It covers an area of 67,000 sq km. On 30 June 1947, out of a population of approximately 2,600,000 inhabitants, there were 19,411 Catholics and 378 catechumens. In addition to the bishop, there were 30 priests, 11 of them belonging to the Chinese secular clergy; 36 students attended the minor seminary, while in the regional seminary, Hong-Kong (v.), there were 5 philosophers and 5 theologians for K. There were 14 sisters, all Americans, who were also engaged in forming an indigenous women’s religious congregation, for which purpose they had gathered 17 young women. There were 56 catechists and 31 teachers. The territory, in which 19 churches and 13 chapels were scattered, was divided into 26 parishes and 314 outstations. There were also 5 homes for the elderly and 9 dormitories for pupils attending government schools; 16 elementary schools with 978 children, and 15 schools of prayer and elementary instruction with 1,070 pupils.
The beginnings of Christianity in the region of K. are recent, dating only from 1845 and subsequently from 1850 and 1861, through the work of Christians who had immigrated there from Malaysia, Siam, and Canton; in 1850 the first French missionaries were sent there, encountering many difficulties and some local persecution during the Franco-Chinese War (1884–85). The new American missionaries likewise experienced difficulties and suffering during the first years of the Second World War.