Abstract:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>This is a story about gay/queer globalization unfolded through the narratives of Korean gay men in Seoul. In this paper, I make use of <jats:italic>talanoa</jats:italic> dialogues to apprehend the way race and racial hierarchies can provide insights into the conditions in which the gay subject in Seoul is intelligible in intercultural interactions. I present these narratives in the format of a thematic <jats:italic>talanoa</jats:italic> using Pacific Research Methodologies (PRM). In doing so, I advance a unique way to negotiate communication with participants in a cross-cultural setting, rendering myself visible as a racialized (Sāmoan) researcher. Empirically, I argue that the narratives of Korean gay men party to this study demonstrate how the Korea/local–West/global binary is an important referential, in that there exists a structural connection through immigration policies that facilitates a transnational convergence of local and global racial hierarchies. This connection, I also argue, helps to structure and position Whiteness at the apex of racial hierarchies around foreigner subjectivities in South Korea.</jats:p>