看作
kàn zuò · HSK 6
to look upon as
👀 看 look + 作 act-as = see something and cast it as something else
You look at X and assign it a new role. 看 is the seeing, 作 is the role you give it. A teacher 看作 a shy kid as a future leader — the gaze decides what it becomes.
看 — hand 手 over eye 目
看 is an associative compound showing a hand (手, simplified to 龹) shading an eye (目), depicting someone shielding their eyes to look into the distance. From this concrete gesture it broadened to mean 'to look,' 'to watch,' and later 'to read' or 'to consider.'
作 — person radical 亻 + 乍
作 combines the person radical 亻 with 乍, which originally depicted a sudden action or making something. The character means 'to do, make, or create,' with 亻 indicating human activity and 乍 supplying the sound. Over time it broadened to cover works, deeds, and acting as something.