It took looking at fanart with East Asian features for me to realize that LotR is a Chinese story! Okay SO there are Taoist immortals aiding the people of the Middle Kingdom; one of them turns evil, destroying a delicate balance of power; a rough and tumble rural warrior, wielding a reforged ancestral blade, joins forces with a Confucian scholar, his cousins and manservant; they rescue the greatest city with an army of despised northern horse-archers and honor-bound dead men.
Even the racism maps (the enemy armies contain Okinawan pirates and southern elephant riders)! It’s wuxia! I was so caught up in Europe I hadn’t figured it out.