The gold rushes beginning in the mid 19th century in Otago New Zealand was a period of great change in the biosocial fabric of the fledgling colonial society. Discovery of gold by Gabriel Read at Tuapeka in 1861 precipitated an influx of thousands of (mostly) men from all over the world into the region in search of their fortune. Later, from 1865, men from China were invited to participate in the gold mining process. These men came with the specific intent of earning money to take back to their families in China. Sadly, many of these men died in New Zealand and their earthly remains were interred in burial grounds throughout the region; some were sent back to China, but many were not. The historical narrative surrounding the lived experiences of these men has focussed largely on their marginalisation from their European fellow miners and there has been limited investigation of their health. Since 2017 the Southern Cemeteries Archaeology project has been investigating Historic-era unmarked graves, including those of Chinese, in the Otago region. One of the aims of this project is to address the issue of structural violence perpetrated on the Chinese miners. Using osteological and archival evidence, this paper will provide a bioarchaeological narrative of the lived experiences of Chinese miners in Otago. The health and diet of the individuals found in the archaeological investigations will be presented and archival sources of hospital and death records will be interrogated to the determine if the risks of illness, death and injury to Chinese were more prevalent than in Europeans.