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Newly calm and tolerable white woman Lady Gaga has reportedly been blacklisted by the Chinese government after discussing mental health and meditation with chill personified, the Dalai Lama.
Gaga, who was objectively robbed of the 2016 Best Original Song Oscar and thus wrongfully denied ¾ EGOT status by Sam Smith, met with the exiled spiritual leader prior to the 84th annual Conference of Mayors in Indianapolis. The pair met for 20 minutes for a Facebook live-streamed discussion during which time they discussed love, compassion and karma. You can watch that here.
The inevitable backlash followed soon after news of their meeting made its way to Beijing, where China’s Communist party have reportedly added her to a blacklist of hostile foreign forces. According to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy, presumably GP-recommended newspaper Apple Daily, the propaganda arm of the the party has since issued a missive banning websites and media organisations from promoting her repertoire in mainland China as a sign of Beijing’s considerable displeasure. Party-controlled news outlets have also been ordered to publicly condemn the meeting in newspapers and on broadcast television. Records of the meeting have reportedly since been scrubbed from news services in China, where Gaga heretofore enjoyed a massive fan base. Reprisal on Chinese social media website Weibo has also been swift, with authorities relaxing their ban on the Dalai Lama’s name to allow fans to vent their frustrations.
Gaga’s music, often characterised by heavy-handed licentious metaphors, has previously banned by China’s censorship authorities, who you can imagine wouldn’t look too kindly on Top 40 bops about Mary Jane, power bottoming and whatever Scheiße was about.
You can watch excerpts from another conversation the two had below.
VIDEO: Lady Gaga & The Dalai Lama discuss the power of kindness and how to make the world a more compassionate placehttps://t.co/1mbXaGwMcx
— Lady Gaga (@LadyGagaUpdated) June 27, 2016
Tile and cover image: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Born This Way Foundation
