My suggestion, for what it's worth: Look into the building blocks of the words/names. In every culture, names have rules. The more you understand those rules the more you can see whether a name looks 'right', which is what you do in English. For example, Jhon Aomer Curly Smeit looks weird to you because it violates a bunch of English name rules. Four parts, a non-surname adjective, weird spelling, etc.

To give a Chinese example, Mao Zedong follows a pretty standard Chinese pattern: three monosyllables with the last two smooshed together to appeal to the western idea of names having two parts. This is the vast majority of Chinese names, to the point where exceptions (like Zhuge Liang) are notable. Once you realize that, you can start to parse out other rules based on what those three syllables are, add in courtesy names (which have a separate set of rules), etc.

Best of all, because people expect these rules to be followed they will often coerce names to follow them. For example, the sometimes incredibly long names of European aristocrats are often parsed down to a first and last name. Likewise, we tend to ascribe surnames to people who didn't have them or use appellations as if they were surnames. So once you understand the rules you are often 'right' even if the actual name is different.

In short, you need to give your brain a way to process the information. Most people are terrible at rote memorization. They need their brain to understand why the information is important and how to interpret and contextualize it.

At least that's my experience. I've never been any good at just remembering arbitrary things but understanding systems allows me to have fairly good recall. For example, when I was very young I had a great deal of trouble memorizing numbers but once I realized the system it was easy. I just had to see "325" not as an arbitrary group of numbers but as indicating, "three hundreds, two tens, and five".

Outside of understanding the rules of the language, I would also suggest becoming familiar with the phonology of the language actually. You don't have to become a genius or anything, but being familiar with what counts as a permissible sound will also help you when you're trying to remember names rather than reading them. For example, "ki" is not a sound you'll ever hear in Chinese so if you know the sound starts with a "k," you can limit the next letter/sound. Being able to create a reliable pronunciation on your own and not have to try to approximate it or guess using English every time (thereby resulting in different variations of pronunciation) will also make it easier for you to repeat and remember names.

From the introduction to Mark Elvin's excellent Retreat of the Elephants: an Environmental History of China.

The most difficult practical obstacle to assimilating Chinese history for those who are not Chinese speakers is one that is, paradoxically, both trivial and all but insurmountable. This is remembering Chinese names of people and places.

He goes on to describe the most popular transcription scheme, pinyin, as putting "mental barbed wire" in the way of native English speakers.

That's pretty much your answer, though you're not going to like it: it's really, really hard. If nothing else, at least take comfort in the fact that this is a recognized problem. You don't have a defective brain and you're not facing some unique issue here. Chinese linguistic patterns are in some ways very difficult for people used to western patterns, and pinyin sometimes seems as if it were deliberately designed to exacerbate that.

The solution is really just to work harder. There are no shortcuts here. Take very detailed notes as you read and focus on names, come up with mnemonics, and perhaps even consider some light Chinese language instruction from duolingo or something similar to get you used to the phonetics if nothing else. Being able to internalize the pronunciation may help you recognize names at a glance a bit better.

All that aside, I'd like to address the first thing you said.

As my studies become more focused, I have avoided western history because in the US it seems that’s all you’re taught in high school.

This is a trap. I felt similar to you as an undergrad - I didn't want to rehash the same tired old American narratives we've had beaten into our heads since kindergarten. I wanted to specialize in something really exotic and unique because I was Special. I was very fortunate to have an advisor disabuse me of that notion.

To really specialize in any region or time period, some relevant element of literacy is necessary. If you want to focus on Chinese history, that means learning to read at least one Chinese language. I would be very careful trying to specialize outside of your linguistic sphere unless you are very committed to putting in a lot of extra work. Has this been brought up to you yet by your advisor or other faculty?

The other side of this is that a serious, high level look at American history, for instance, will bear surprisingly little resemblance to what you were taught in high school. There are lots of areas to specialize in here that will be very new to you as well. I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

If this degree is just a stepping stone to something like law school for you, then you can ignore all this - just get the grades and move on. But if you're considering a masters/phd/a career as a historian/etc I would be careful choosing to focus on Chinese history unless you're prepared to also study the language, which is quite difficult to do.