Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ying attended Newman Catholic College for HKCEE (1982) and New Method College for A levels (1983). He received all of his tertiary education at the CUHK: Bachelor of Arts in History (1987), Master of Philosophy in Chinese church history (1989), and Doctor of Philosophy in Chinese church history (1995). His master thesis' topic is "The Adaptation of Religious Belief and Cultural Environment of Chinese Christians in the late Qing Dynasty (1860-1911)," supervised by Wang Erh Ming (Chinese: 王爾敏). His PhD topic is "Saving the Nations in Christianity: Xu Qian, Feng Yü-hsiang, and Zhang Zhijiang," supervised by Lau Yee-cheung and Leung Yuen-sang. Ying was baptized at Ward Methodist Church in 1987 and became a volunteer missionary with the Hong Kong Methodist Church [zh] in 1999.[2]