Despite a surge of research interest on languages other than English (LOTE) education over the past years, there is a lack of attention to LOTE teachers’ professional practice and development in higher education. To address such a gap, this narrative inquiry examines how a Romanian language teacher navigates identity tensions and seeks his professional development through his participation in a research community in a Chinese university. Informed by possible selves theory and relying on data from two rounds of interviews and field observation notes, the findings show that the participant constantly tried to create, update, and refine his multiple identities (i.e. actual, ought, ideal and feared), which aligned with and/or contradicted each other with collective influences on his daily practice and development. The study offers useful implications for LOTE teachers, teacher educators, and university management regarding LOTE teacher development in complex and shifting higher education settings.