This paper tries to understand why people don’t want to be rural teacher in China from the lens of identity. The analysis from the current research literature on rural teacher identity and field interview data shows that the policy/institution, human relationship and individual agency are three main groups of factors influencing teachers’ willingness to be rural teachers. Generally speaking, the more recognition the rural teachers get from the state via institutional policies and from the local community via a sense of relational belonging, the more meaning they find in their job. But the current teacher professionalization effort initiated by the state is alienates rural teachers from the local communities. Being alienated from the local community and institutional separated from the “urban teacher professional community” causes rural teachers to have a diminished sense of professional worth. This can lead to a mechanical performance of daily task without a professional commitment to the students and families in one’s local community as the rural teacher used to be in the traditional China. The study suggests that the state should consider the rural teachers’ professionality seriously under the urbanization and new rural construction context, and should think about nurturing the rural teachers’ sense of professional identity by reconstructing a professional meaning system the rural teachers can rely on to maintain their commitment.