Seems like Journey to the West is referenced and copied so much in Eastern cultures without any fear of it getting old or going stale.
Is there something similar for Westerners? Is there some Shakespearean story we keep re-imagining again and again without shame?
Tolkien. Copied over and over again. Essentially invented the fantasy genre.
Redefined and popularised is perhaps fairer to say than invented.
Story structure can be found in classical literature, setting can be found through European mythology.
Tolkien codified all the ingredients into a specific mix and brought the world to life, he didn’t invent the those ingredients
I should have said “modern fantasy genre”. It didn’t really exist before Tolkien. Closest is probably Robert E. Howard (1925-1936) who is roughly contemporaneous with Tolkien (the Hobbit was published in 1937, though it had been completed in 1932).