Much research has been conducted in the area of teacher professional identity in the past decades. Nonetheless, very little attention has been paid to the professional identity of tutors in distance education. Using interviews, this study set out to investigate distance tutors' claimed and assigned professional identities, their actual, ought and ideal responsibilities, as well as job satisfaction and expected institutional support. The study involved 155 tutors from Chinese open universities. As indicated by the findings, Chinese distance tutors claimed to be inferior to their counterparts at conventional universities in research facilities and resources, social status, professional development, teaching facilities and resources, and income. Their assigned identity further confirms their professional vulnerability as a disadvantaged cohort of higher education academics. Discrepancies also exist between their actual, ought and ideal roles and much needs to be done to enhance their professional identity. Implications are discussed at the sociocultural, institutional, and personal levels.