American singer Lady Gaga and her entire musical repertoire has reportedly been banned from mainland China by the Communist Party, which rules the country, after she met Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama in Indianapolis in the U.S. on Tuesday. The Dalai Lama and China have been at constant loggerheads over Tibet, and China has gone so far as to warn even U.S. President Barack Obama against meeting the Buddhist leader.
After the two met and reportedly talked peace, all of Gaga's repertoire was banned in mainland China, reported the Guardian, citing an article in Hong Kong-based newspaper Apple Daily.
The Dalai Lama, who is fighting for the independence of Tibet from the Chinese, is called a separatist by the country's Communist regime. Any world power's efforts to commiserate with the spiritual leader are also usually met with stern warnings from Beijing of political and financial repercussions.
His meeting with Lady Gaga was also perceived by fans of the American pop star and outspoken LGBT rights activist as a snub to them. So, while one fan on Sina Weibo — the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, because both Facebook and Twitter are banned in China — has called for the matter to be viewed in a rational manner, others have either reacted to the post or outright asked if she was "stupid" or "ignorant" for having waded into a matter of such political sensitivity to the Chinese, according to a BBC report.
Also, while Lady Gaga's Twitter post, in which she shared her photo with the Buddhist spiritual leader, was received well by people, posts by many users on Weibo, where the photo was shared, were reportedly censored by the micro-blogging site.
Interestingly, this is not the first time Lady Gaga or her troupe has been banned in China. Her music, videos and live performances were banned in the country between 2011 and 2014.
