A recent Taiwan-themed special edition of Japanese magazine BRUTUS has sparked a heated debate among netizens in Taiwan, and even spawned a “Taiwan street scene cover maker” for creating thousands of alternative magazine covers.
日本雜誌BRUTUS台灣特輯封面日前引發台灣網友熱議，並出現「台灣街景封面產生器」，產生數千張雜誌封面。
BRUTUS magazine’s special Taiwan edition contains a street scene on its cover, taken on Tainan’s Guohua Street, which includes pedestrians, parked scooters lining either side of the street and snack food vendor shop hoardings. Some netizens said that the scene is actually quite unattractive and others supported this view, saying the cover simply depicts a typical scene from everyday life in Taiwan. An online debate quickly erupted.
BRUTUS台灣特輯用台南國華街街景照當封面，畫面裡有路人、停滿兩旁的機車、小吃攤招牌等。有網友認為市容不美觀，也有人力挺這就是台灣日常景象，掀起討論。
The “Taiwan street scene cover maker” was conceived to allow people to upload their own alternative street scene covers onto the Internet.
「台灣街景封面產生器」的誕生，則讓大家可以上傳街景自製封面。
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper has even reported on the passionate debate the magazine’s cover photo has triggered in Taiwan and interviewed the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Zenta Nishida.
日本朝日新聞也介紹這本雜誌特集在台灣引發的熱議，並訪問到BRUTUS總編輯西田善太。
Nishida was quoted as saying, “It is absolutely unheard-of in publishing for a single special edition of a magazine to produce so many variations of covers. I’m delighted.”
西田說：「只靠一本特輯就能產生出這麼多的封面，在雜誌界是前所未聞，我感到非常開心」。
The article went on to say that many Taiwanese used lively night market scenes, photos of Taiwanese cuisine such as hsiaolungbao buns and scenic landscapes, adding the caption “Taiwan’s most beautiful scenery” to the cover before posting on social media sites.
文中表示，許多台灣人用熱鬧的夜市及台灣美食小籠包、大自然的風景照當封面，再加上「台灣最美的風景」當標題，PO到社群網站上。
Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2017/07/25/2003675219