Editor’s Note: A version of this article was first published on February 10, 2024. CNN  —  In photographer Zhang Xiao’s images of the Shehuo festival, an ancient celebration still observed in parts of northern China during the Lunar New Year , rural life comes alive with something altogether more fantastical. Villagers dressed as cranes, roosters and mythical lions pose for portraits standing amid crops or in fallow farmland. Costumed performers parade past brick houses against hazy backdrops,