Why Lady Gaga was just banned from China

John Lynch
dalai lama and lady gaga
dalai lama and lady gaga

(The Dalai Lama and Lady Gaga.Michael Conroy/AP)

For the second time in her career, singer Lady Gaga has been banned from China — this time for meeting with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who has been exiled from the Communist country since 1959.

The 30-year-old pop singer met with the Dalai Lama on Sunday before his keynote address at the United States Conference of Mayors in Indianapolis. The two spoke for nearly 20 minutes in a video that Gaga posted to her Facebook page.

In the video, which has since been viewed over 3 million times, Gaga and the Dalai Lama discuss a wide range of topics — including suicide, yoga, and the trials of living in a materialistic world.

The Chinese government reacted to the meeting by issuing "an important instruction" that effectively banned Gaga from mainland China and asked media outlets to stop uploading and playing her work, according to China's pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

The Dalai Lama was exiled from Tibet in 1959 after he fled arrest from Mao Zedong's Communist government by leaving China for India.

Lady Gaga was previously banned from China in 2011, along with dozens of other pop artists, for having "poor taste and vulgar content."

Business Insider has reached out to representatives of Lady Gaga for comment on the ban.

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