The character Lee in Steinbeck's East of Eden is a Chinese-American who speaks in pidgin — until he explains to his boss, in very articulate English, that he does so for reasons of his own.
In my Gold Rush story, the protagonist employs a Chinese man who — he will discover — does the same thing in order to remain inconspicuous. I have two problems that Steinbeck didn't have:
I'm no John Steinbeck.
Some modern readers will cringe at the character's pidgin. If asked his name, the character would say something like:
"Lee. Got more name. Lee papa family name. Call Lee."
Even if such talk is "accurate" — he's deliberately playing an early-20th-century stereotype, after all — I'd hate for any readers to be pulled out of the story by its "unrealtiy", or worse, decide to stop reading before the reveal.
What's a good way to handle this?