This qualitative research investigated the applicability of teacher leadership, a notion mostly grounded in the Western literatures, to the educational settings in China. The current research focused on the Chinese lead teachers, backbone teachers (BTs), their experiences, and perspectives of teacher leadership. As a program designed to increase school capacity, the BT system has left its delivery of the promises largely to the local context. The BTs' boundary expanding into other leadership domains traditionally considered as remote from the core of teaching and learning was at the mercy of the principal's leadership and support.