Abstract The Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai marks the inception of urban modernity narrative in Chinese literature, and it features the narrative structure of the ‘implicit narration’ and ‘intermittent revelation’. This paper proposes a conceptual model and an operational methodology for dissecting and quantifying this narrative structure. Integrating narrative theory with quantitative text analysis, we identify and extract key markers across three dimensions: character, place, and event. In the character dimension, we analyse word frequency, distribution, and co-occurrence networks among characters. The spatial dimension is examined through kernel density analysis of plot movement, while the event dimension is investigated using character-event and place-event co-occurrence matrices. The results reveal three core mechanisms: (1) Key characters function as agents of ‘intermittent revelation’, bridging disparate narrative threads; (2) Spatial organization is strategically deployed, with the Fourth Avenue brothel district enabling the rapid scene shifts of ‘implicit narration’, and the Conical Hat Garden serving as a consolidated stage for the suspension and reactivation of multiple plots in ‘intermittent revelation’; (3) Drinking parties act as narrative springboards for ‘implicit narration’, while the strategic shift from private encounters to public conversations refines ‘intermittent revelation’ through controlled disclosure and sustained suspense. In summary, this study elucidates how Han Bangqing orchestrated these elements into a distinctive narrative architecture and provides a replicable quantitative framework for analysing narrative structure.
Wang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.