What got this post started was a media blitz this morning on the Blogosphere and in the traditional media that Miley Cyrus, now 18, was smoking herbal “Salvia” fumes from a bong.
Curious what herbal “Salvia” was, I Googled the topic and discovered seemly bogus claims that Miley was banned from China early in 2009 when she was still 16.
I discovered that Miley Cyrus Online.co.uk (billed as the “ultimate fan site” for gossip) said in February 2009, that Cyrus had been banned in China due to a photograph showing her pulling her eyes back into an Asian slant.
To verify this, I searched Reuters, United Press International and Associated Press and came up with nothing to support the fan-site claim.
However, the BBC News did report, “The Organization of Chinese Americans criticized Cyrus for setting ‘a terrible example for her young fans’.”
Miley Cyrus singing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”
Then I discovered in March 2010, that Cyrus was featured in the China Daily, which is the English version of Xinhua, the state owned media giant in China.
If Cyrus had been banned in China, I doubt the China Daily would feature her a year later.
However, I did learn that “Salvia” comes from the deep roots of the Chinese sage plant and has been used for centuries in China as a salve on damaged, diseased or injured body tissues and is best known for its ability to promote circulation in the capillary beds or the microcirculation system.
Nowhere did this information say one should smoke Salvia to achieve these benefits. After all, inhaling smoke into one’s lungs is not a good idea because it causes damage to the sensitive lining of the lungs and increases cancer risk.
Then I learned from NPR.org that “Salvia” is a powerful and legal hallucinogenic herb that is gaining popularity among teenagers and young adults…. Legislation to make it a controlled substance has failed twice in (in the US) Congress.
If Cyrus were smoking Salvia, what she was doing wasn’t illegal in California. If you want to learn where not to smoke Salvia visit Sage Wisdom.org.
As for celebrities banned in China, such as Brad Pitt, the Dalai Lama, Martin Scorsese, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere (no surprise there), and singer Mjork, check out Elephant Journal.com.
It seems there may be some truth to what Cyrus said, “I definitely feel like the press (and the Blogosphere rumor mill) is trying to make me out as the new ‘bad girl’!” Source: BBC
Discover more about Chinese Herbalism
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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After her last vulgar album and that unspeakable thing she did on TV, China should ban her. Every country should ban her.
I disagree. In a culture where more freedom of choice is offered by the government, each individual adult must decide for him or herself what they will watch and buy. And parents must have meaningful conversations with their children about that vulgar display that Miley Cyrus did on stage recently for the whole world to see through TV and YouTube. Censoring someone isn’t going to change the tastes of the people. If you want proof of that, just look to China and you will discover that almost every book movie and song that has been banned in China is sold on the illegal black market. Most people will do what they want regardless of censorship. The United States learned that the hard-way during the national prohibition on alcohol in the early part of the 20th century. People who wanted to drink booze, bought it on the black market or made their own at home and still got drunk.