Polarization is an important property of light field. According to the spatial polarization distribution, optical field can be divided into the scalar field and the vector field. Since the vector field with inhomogeneous polarization distribution performs some interesting behaviors in light propagation, studying the vector beam is of either scientific significance or engineering applied importance. The hybrid vector beams, which contains all kinds of polarization state in the same wave front, has attracted a lot of interests since 2010. Due to the richer polarization states than the normal vector beam, the hybrid vector beam shows attractive prospect on the optical communication, optical manipulation and quantum communication fields. Here, the generation, focusing, propagating and nonlinear optics of the hybrid vector beam were summarized.