Chinese are furious after Lady Gaga meets Dalai Lama

Poker faces were in short supply after Lady Gaga met the Dalai Lama, with Chinese social media users erupting in fury Monday.

The pop star met with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader at the United States Conference of Mayors in Indiana, where the Nobel laureate gave the keynote speech.

After Lady Gaga posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram, a photo sharing site owned by Facebook, the image was inundated with abusive comments.

"The way the Chinese feel is just like you were shaking hands with Bin Laden," one poster wrote.

Another said: "This is proof that she can love and respect a Chinese terrorist. She fundamentally looks down on Chinese fans, and even all Chinese people."

Asked by AFP if the meeting would lead to a 'bad romance' between Chinese authorities and the singer, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei did not recognise the recording artist.

"Who?" he asked. The Dalai Lama was "touting his Tibetan independence policies around the world" he said, adding: "We hope people can see through to his true nature."

The Dalai Lama's speech mainly focused on hope for the future, US reports said.

"Now, the time has come that America should be the leading nation in the promotion of human compassion, human love in order to achieve compassionate world," he said, according to the Indianapolis Star newspaper.

"I think in my lifetime we can achieve that. But effort must start now."

Gaga with Dalai Lama

Lady Gaga and the Dalai Lama had a 20-minute chat about compassion and meditation on Sunday (26.06.16).

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama met with the pop star at the US Conference of Mayors in Indianapolis where she asked him a number of questions chosen from social media, with the entire chat streamed on Facebook Live.

Their talk was called 'The Global Significance of Building Compassionate Cities: Kindness Makes it Happen' and the pair also traded jokes about their respective ages.

The Dalai Lama said: "I'm one 81-year-old person with quite a lot of experiences. My experiences much bigger than your experiences," while Gaga, 30, made him laugh by quipping: "You didn't know this, but I'm much older than you."

Gaga also spoke about the need to combat evil in the world with kindness and by educating and helping young people.

She said: "As we're busy trying to figure out which group is causing the problem, evil is winning...we have to change the perspective.

"We need to educate them. You have the power to be kind to them."

And the Dalai Lama said: "We are a social animal, so individuals' future depends entirely on the community. Once a tragic situation happens, don't avoid - but look at it more deeply and widely. Many positive, happy things are there if you look from a wider perspective. If you look real closely, it appears unbearable. But if you look widely you see other positive things there."

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.