Save an EAV attribute in Magento2 without touching the model, repository

Question

This can be done easily in magento1 with the saveAttribute() -method of Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Abstract . For example, if you only need to save the is_active -flag for a category, you can do:

$data = new Varien_Object();
$data->setEntityId($categoryId);
$data->setIsActive(1);

Mage::getSingleton('catalog/category')
    ->getResource()
    ->saveAttribute($data, 'is_active');

How can i do it in magento2 without using CategoryRepositoryInterface, only update one attribute?