Random fiber laser is a new type of fiber lasers. Compared with conventional fiber lasers, benefiting from its modeless, better stability, higher realibility, simpler structure and many other advantages, random fiber lasers have developed quite well in recent years in realization of a number of novel light sources including high power/high efficiency, broadband, low coherence, etc, leading to many research achievements. The author of this review is the leader of the first group to carry out research on Random fiber lasers in China. The development history of random fiber lasers is firstly summarized systematically. Then, the recent advances in random fiber lasers and their applications to optical fiber sensing and communication are introduced mainly. Finally, the future developments of random fiber lasers are prospected.