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This article examines the judgment and interpretation of Mandarin relative clauses (RCs) by heritage speakers (HSs) and second language learners (L2ers) of Mandarin, using an acceptability judgment task (AJT) and a picture-based truth-value judgment task (TVJT), in order to examine whether there is dominant language transfer in this domain, and whether HSs and/or L2ers exhibit a subject-extracted RC (SRC) advantage. The HSs and L2ers were both English-dominant and matched on Mandarin proficiency. The AJT tested whether participants knew that Mandarin RCs are head-final, unlike head-initial English RCs. The TVJT tested whether participants correctly interpreted Mandarin RCs with two animate nouns. In the AJT, both HSs and L2ers rated head-final RCs significantly above head-initial RCs, overcoming English transfer of RC headedness with increased proficiency. In the TVJT, HSs performed similarly to L2ers; neither group showed a clear SRC advantage, contrary to the predictions of the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy (NPAH) (Keenan & Comrie 1977). Compared to HSs/L2ers of Korean (O’Grady et al. 2001), HSs/L2ers of Mandarin in the present study acquire RCs more successfully, possibly due to high Mandarin proficiency, task format, and/or the lack of case markers in Mandarin RCs. While there was a slight HS advantage over L2ers in the AJT, there was no HS advantage in the TVJT, suggesting that Mandarin word order is not particularly difficult for either group, in contrast to case marking in Korean.