Bias in History

In Class

There is no doubt that bias exists in history. The three most common types of bias in history are topic choice bias, confirmation bias and national bias.

I've personally experienced bias in history. When I was in Malaysia, I studied at a Chinese independent high school. Naturally, the history textbooks that we used were imported from China. They were written by Chinese historians from China. At that time, I was taught that an important Chinese leader, let's just call the person Z, was a very respectful and great leader. If it wasn't for Z, China wouldn't be what it is today. China probably wouldn't be the world's second largest economy. That was what I learned and what I thought was the truth. Or was it?

Studying history in Saigon South International School made me learn that sometimes what I was taught may not necessarily be the truth. Or at least, it is the truth in one culture but not in another. I was shown documentaries about Z, and the documentaries were said to show historical events that the majority Chinese do not even know of. The Z that I saw in those documentaries was still great and mighty, but I also saw Z did dreadful things that one could never imagine. Why is there such a discrepancy by just studying one historical figure in two distinct cultures? The answer is: national bias. It is natural for the Chinese government to want their citizens to only know that Z was a great leader, and nothing else. However, is that argument justified? Wouldn't the Chinese population, like me in the past, only learn about partial truth? Do they not have the right to know everything about Z, if Z was truly such a great leader?

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