In certain parts of Asia, where newspapers are printed in either Japanese or Chinese, the English term "versus" (printed in roman letters and often initialized to just "vs.") is frequently used in headlines in Mandarin or Nihongo to mean "competing against" or "as opposed to." Which is correct.
But sometimes the term "vs." is used in Chinese character headlines to mean "and", which cannot be correct. Or can it ever be used that way?
Recently, I saw a story that was headlined "India vs. Taiwan film festival gets underway" and this was a story that was meant to decribe a film festival that included screenings of films from both India and Taiwan. How did "vs" ever get in there?
This happens quite often, confusing "vs." with "and". I once saw a pub with a sign that read "Music Vs. Jazz" as its name, and when I asked the owner why he called it that, he said that his pub offered ''music and jazz'' to patrons. SInce English was not his first language, he had come to believe that "vs" could be used in signage to mean "and".
How did this turn of events ever come to be?
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