Reported in this paper is an ethnographic study of school teachers engaging in teacher action research in the Chinese context supported by university researchers. Through four vignettes, it demonstrates the actual processes of teachers' engagement in one cycle of action research in different ways. The findings of the study in Beijing echo researchers elsewhere about the necessity to guard against the technical rational view of action research. To increase the sustainability of Action Research as an approach to teachers' professional development, the paper discusses possible ways to create a Chinese version of Action Research through integration with the indigenous practices in teacher learning.