This study explores the narration of China as a nation in history education in two regions -- mainland China and Hong Kong -- that share cultural roots but different socio-political contexts. Inductive analysis of data from junior-secondary Chinese history textbooks used in the regions in the late 2010s revealed that whereas mainland China's textbooks constructed China as a nation by stressing its constitutive territory and ethnic inclusiveness, Hong Kong's highlighted its constitutive ethnicity and changing territory, more frequently and directly narrated interethnic conflicts, and more explicitly promoted Han superiority. The study proposes constructing the nation in history education as a contextualised and socio-political exercise of reinterpreting the past to reflect current contexts and needs.