Neo-liberal reforms have triggered the emergence of new professionalism of teachers. This study adopts the perspective of inhabited institutionalism theory and proposes that teachers are not passively influenced by the new professionalism but that they can also respond to it differently based on their own sense-making. Using in-depth interview data from Chinese high school teachers, this study finds that two contradictory but coexisting forms of managerial professionalism strongly influence teachers: examination-oriented professionalism and quality-oriented professionalism. Meanwhile, three patterns of teachers' reactions to externally-imposed professionalism are identified: 'Why bother?', 'Struggling', and 'Meaningless'. The findings provoke further discussion of the potential influence of teachers' responses to the new professionalism and professional development.