Fr. Sergio Ticozzi has written a very detailed history of the formation of the local clergy in China. His interest in the subject was aroused when, in 2007, he started working on local priestly formation both in Hong Kong and china.
Looking back on the 2,000 year history of the church, Fr. Ticozzi, in his opening chapter, points out that the church has always had a history of forming a local clergy. For instance, St Paul, after preaching the Gospel in many cities along the Mediterranean Sea, always appoint presbyters, like Timothy and Titus, as overseers for the communities he had set up.
The development of the local clergy got great impetus from Pope Benedict XV's 1919 encyclical Maximum Illud and from the appointment of Archbishop Celso Costantini as Apostolic Delegate to China (in office, 1922-1933). Fr. Ticozzi faithfully records developments in the formation of the local Chinese clergy during all those tumultuous years, and brings that history up to the present day.