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?
The Arthurian legends come to mind.
King Arthur isn’t “one story” though. King Arthur is closer to 1100s-era fanart / fanfiction culture.
EVERYONE was making King Arthur stories back then. And guess what? They contradicted. That’s why we have Excalibur vs Sword in the Stone (sometimes they’re the same sword. Sometimes they aren’t. Its a big contradiction because there’s no singular author).
The Chinese Great Novel “Journey to the West” is truly one story by one author with multiple millennia of copycats. Meanwhile, King Author is basically a millennia of copycats without anyone knowing who the original was to begin with. Very different fundamentally.