How big is the male ego?

My office is located at a newish complex, and renovations are still going on in some units. Workers would use lifts to ferry sacks of cement, bricks, tiles and other construction materials to the upper levels.

To protect the interior of the lifts from irreversible serious cosmetic damage, the walls and floors are lined with plywood boards. Some people have started using these boards as their advertising medium- the service provided (housekeeping, for example) would be written in large characters, followed by a contact number.

An interesting service advertised was 打炮 (literally, whack cannon). The dictionary says the meanings of whack cannon are
(verb) to open fire with artillery / (slang) to ejaculate

Aha, sexual services for money!


Hokkien speakers refer to the act of male masturbation as 打手枪 (whack handgun). But nothing beats the Cantonese equivalent – 打飞机 (whack aeroplane).

The male ego can turn out to be disproportionally large.