The experiences of Chinese learners on two e-learning programmes in China were investigated, focusing particularly on the formation of learning communities. Data were collected using a range of instruments to access the learners' perspectives in depth and detail. Archer's account of reflexivity as the mediating power between structure and agency is applied to understanding how learners succeeded in one programme in forming a learning community, through their negotiated responses to the existing structural and cultural conditions, whereas little evidence was found of the emergence of learning community in the other case. Further understanding emerges from reappraisal of Confucian philosophy of learning and social relationships, how these influenced the participants' prior learning experiences and how they play a part in their responses to the e-learning experience. (Contains 2 figures.)