Teacher motivation is pivotal in creating engaging teaching and learning environments, enhancing students' learning outcomes, and is fundamental to teachers' professional commitment, psychological well-being, and resilience. Despite the increasing interest in EFL teacher motivation, there remains a considerable lack of in-depth exploration into the socio-political environments that shape and influence it. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring the link between language teacher motivation and emotion from a socio-political perspective. Focusing on three Chinese EFL teachers, the research utilized data from three rounds of semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and documents. Using a data-driven inductive approach, the analysis revealed three types of motivation: relational, bumpy, and adaptive, influenced by two feeling rules, namely, “Don't show negative emotions” and “Do show positive emotions.” The study discusses the potential and limitations of emotion labor as a motivator in language education and a richer understanding of feeling rules. Pedagogical implications are also discussed.