Cathay large Christian population, while the Jesuits in China had not found any Christians there. In retrospect, the Central Asian Muslim informants' idea of the Ming China being a heavily Christian country may be explained by numerous similarities between Christian and Buddhist ecclesiastical rituals – from having sumptuous statuary and ecclesiastical robes to Gregorian chant – which would make the two religions appear externally similar to a Muslim merchant. This may also have been the genesis of the Prester John myth. To resolve the China-Cathay controversy, the India Jesuits sent a Portuguese lay brother, Bento de Góis on an overland expedition
Cathay de Grande name at the Cathay after going by the name Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem for their two previous performances at another Hollywood club. They would play the Cathay a few times during their first tour in 1983 and once in 1984. Other bands who frequently played the Cathay included The Minutemen, Bad Religion, Tex and the Horseheads, Dr. Know, The WILD, Entropy, along with regulars from Orange County Social Distortion, T.S.O.L., The Vandals, Agent Orange and Love Canal. The Knitters played their first gig at the Cathay. The Cathay was dubbed by one newspaper in 1984