Conflicting histories: The stories we’re taught in school can shape our national identity, but how accurate are they?

Melbourne university teacher Guosheng Chen knows better than most that history is written by the victors, or at least by those in power at the time. But the old adage fails to mention that victors don’t stay victors forever and recorded history is not constant, but fluid. The history lessons we learn in school — which differ vastly from country to country — are revised and rewritten over time, and those changes are frequently driven by political motives, social movements and multiculturalism. Ms Chen was born in Jiangsu on October 1, 1949: the day the People’s Republic of China was…