Abstract: Chieh-qua, a special vegetable in our country and an important vegetable crop in South China, is mainly planted in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, and consumed in these provinces as well as in Hong Kong and Macao markets. As a high-value crop, it plays an important role in the adjustment of agricultural industrial structure. In this review, the research progresses in genetic improvement of chieh-qua in the last decades in China were summarized, including: (1)progress of germplasm resources collection, conservation, evaluation and innovative utilization of chieh-qua; (2)advances in chieh-qua breeding techniques and related genetic mechanisms, including development of gynoecious materials, inheritance and regulatory mechanisms, identification of fusarium wilt causing pathogen and evaluation of disease resistance, evaluation and creation technology of resistant materials, study of mechanisms of fusarium wilt resistance, heat tolerance evaluation and study of heat tolerance mechanism, the inheritance and QTL mapping and gene cloning of important agronomic traits(yield and quality)in chieh-qua, molecular breeding technology and cell engineering technology of chieh-qua; (3)achievements in gynoecious breeding, heterosis utilization, disease resistance and stress resistance breeding as well as quality breeding. It also analyzed the present problems in genetic improvement of chieh-qua and prospected the evaluation and creation of chieh-qua germplasm resources, practical molecular breeding technology, breeding of diversified and characterized cultivars and related industrialization development in the future.