Idiom priming effects (faster processing compared to new phrases) are commonly robust in native speakers but not non-native speakers. This leads to the question of how idioms and other multiword units are represented and accessed in a first (L1) and second language (L2). This study handles this by exploring the processing of translated Chinese idioms to define whether known L1 combinations show idiom priming effects in non-native speakers when encountered in the L2. In two eye-tracking experiments it compared reading times for idioms vs. control phrases (Experiment 1) and for figurative vs. literal uses of idioms (Experiment 2). Native speakers of Chinese displayed recognition of the L1 form in the L2, but figurative meanings were read more slowly than literal meanings, proposing that the non-compositional nature of idioms makes them problematic in a non-native language. The study debates the results as they link to crosslinguistic priming at the multiword level.