Abstract: Carbon-containing refractories are widely used in molten steel flow control functional refractories and ladle lining materials. However, under high-temperature service conditions, graphite in carbon-containing refractories is prone to oxidation. In particular, graphite dissolution easily leads to carbon pickup in molten steel, which affects the quality of molten steel. Therefore, low-carbonization of carbon-containing refractories has become a development trend. Nevertheless, low-carbonization reduces the elastic modulus, thermal conductivity, and non-wettability with steel slag of refractories, deteriorating their key properties such as slag resistance and thermal shock resistance. At present, introducing ceramic reinforcing phases to optimize the microstructure and improve the performance of carbon-containing refractories has become an important research direction.Silicon carbide (SiC) whiskers are often used as reinforcing phases in carbon-containing refractories due to their characteristics of high strength, high elastic modulus, and high thermal stability.Numerous studies have introduced SiC whiskers either through in-situ generation or direct addition after pre-synthesis to enhance the mechanical properties, thermal shock resistance, slag erosion resistance, and oxidation resistance of carbon-containing refractories. This paper reviews the research on the performance enhancement of carbon-containing refractories by SiC whiskers. From the aspects of the introduction methods of SiC whiskers and their distribution in carbon-containing refractories, it summarizes and analyzes the enhancement effects and mechanisms of SiC whiskers on the properties of carbon-containing refractories, and prospects the future research directions.