Wild Ginger--Nick Parnell

I'm through the first three chapters of the Wild Ginger, and really enjoy the storyline so far. Hot Pepper(a very suiting name) is the local Red Guard leader for the school our main characters Maple and the Wild Ginger go. Basically Hot Pepper and her Red Guard gang members beat foreigners like Maple and Wild Ginger, with umbrellas as they chant out Mao quotes. Maple at first takes this treatment as a lone foreigner, until Wild Ginger enters the school and defends herself as well as Maple and inspires her to also fight back. Wild Ginger's mother is on bedrest as she continues to mourn the loss of her French husband, a man who Wild Ginger hates because he gave her the foreign blood and burdened her with the mistreatment, yet her mother scorns her for hating her father. Wild Ginger hates the Red Guard and Maoist but still wants to join them in order to be treated fairly. I predict that Maple and Wild Ginger are going to get into many more fights and a lot more trouble as they defend their right to live in their homeland.