The electronics Right-to-Repair movement, which challenges tech companies’ repair restrictions and advocates for more sustainable digital devices, is drawing increasing scholarly attention. While existing discussions focus on formalized activism modalities, this study analyzes an alternative form of repair activism in China through the lens of everyday resistance. We illustrate how independent technicians leverage self-made tools, improvised fixes, and unconventional solutions to extend handset lifespans and resist planned obsolescence. Moreover, we account for how such resistance is embedded in Shenzhen’s supply chains and global electronics trade flows, the very systems of power and capital that technicians seek to challenge. Drawing on Michel Serres’ framework of “the parasite,” we propose the concept of “parasitic activism” to theorize such embedded resistance, whose leverage comes precisely from appropriating and repurposing the host structures. This study thereby contributes to media scholarship on electronics repair cultures and invites a broader rethinking of activism in more pluralistic, context-sensitive terms.
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